There are plenty of reasons why women find it hard to shift intransigent fat. i bet many of you have tried all kinds of ways to overcome weight problems but find there are still bits missing from the puzzle. This leads to frustration, disappointment and confusion.

Usually you don't have a tailor made plan for you and your body type, a plan which takes into account ALL the reasons that stop you from losing weight and burning fat. This article will discuss rerasons why your body may be working against your best interests whilst losing weight, and how to fix it.

There are a number of medical challenges which work against weight loss. If you don't understand and address ALL the factors which stop you from losing weight, then you may be setting yourself up for failure unintentionally.

Some of the things affecting fat burning and weight loss include... Hormonal imbalance. Sluggish metabolism. Liver dysfunction. Body toxicity. Fluid retention. Body shape or type. Syndrome X.

Do you think it makes sense to discover if you have any of the above challenges before you start to try to "diet and exercise"? If you do you can be sure of a well crafted plan that is guaranteed, and works over time...

You probably know of people who eat like a bird yet stay fat, and others who eat like horses and stay razor thin. It's not just about the amount of food eaten or exercise done. It is also about the quality of the food, so you feed yourself correctly at the cellular level, and support the correct metabolic rate, liver function, insulin levels, blood sugar levels, hormone production and so on.

Remember your body is a delicately balanced series of systems that make up one organism - you. It is amazing how out of balance your systems can become, yet still sustain you - sort of.

The problem is, there is so much information out there about diet, weight and fat control, it all becomes terribly confusing. Beacause it is all so contrary. One expert says eat less fat, one says eat more carbohydrate, one says don't eat meat. And drug companies take the viewpoint we are all sick and would be better off ingesting their toxic poisons into our systems as a preventative.

I think the types of food we eat on a regular basis form the foundation of health and weight control success, along with the right sort of exercise!

However it is not the diet alone that needs to be addressed. The challenges outlined above are important, and in all cases require some sort of medical intervention to start with - an all encompassing blood test to discover what's what.

If you are flying blind so to speak, you may not only waste time and money on "curing" a non-existent condition, you may make other things worse. All whilst trying to lose weight but not succeeding. Which then leads to feelings of frustration and failure. So you give up. You don't want that do you?

Let me give you an example. I know a woman who was fit and healthy (she could swim 800 metres, cycle 14 km and walk 5 km easily). However could not seem to budge much fat from her frame despite intensive exercise every day. She was still a big woman, and was on the point of giving up.

I convinced her (finally - why are you women so resistant to doing this) to get some comprehensive blood tests done and voila! She had a sluggish thyroid. Simple. With a simply absorbed non-chemical hormone supplement working in her body she began to shed the kilos quite fast. Yet if she had gone on not knowing about it, and taking corrective measures, she would still be frustrated with her problem, instead of enjoying the new figure she now possesses.

As you can see from this example, and the long list of possible challenges noted above, you need to be properly informed of what is going on in your body before you can take corrective steps to a new you.

In my next article I will start to examine the specific challenges noted above, and more importantly, how to overcome them.