Impossible to loose weight with baseline stress?
5 months into diet. I’m 5’11, 85kg, naturally stocky and have good muscle definition, but I’ve been trying to loose a little so my jawline is better and the goal is to get down to almost hsd body fat percentage.
I train min 4x a week, 15-25’min cardio, & 45 min weights, sauna if I’m lucky.
For the last 5 months I’ve consistently eaten at a 500 calorie deficit, no alcohol, reduced carbs.
I swear I haven’t changed one bit.
My sleep is actually ok on average 7 and a half to 8 hours. Some is more like 6/7 and weekends that little longer.
Stress is not as bad as it could be, but I’m constantly working 75-80hr minimum, which probably isn’t helping.
Is stress really f*king me here? And anyone else expirience the same thing?
Hey mate - for reference I am 23, 6'2, 90kg (roughly 200 pounds) and pretty lean. Have been training for over 6 years, cutting and bulking every few years consistently. I know you probably don't want to hear this but If you are truly eating in a 500 calorie deficit it will be virtually impossible to not lose weight, I wouldn't stress over macro nutrients (i,e carbs or fats) except for protein aim for 1 grams per 1lb of body weight. I have done some cuts where for the first 4ish weeks the scale don't drop much but usually that's because my body is adjusting, usually on the 5th and 6th week I notice a significant decline (i.e 4-6lb drop over 2 weeks). Ignore the fitness gurus who claim stress will cause you to not lose weight, there are studies that support this but speak to any gym bro, all it is is calories in and calories out, ignore everything else, (until you understand your body, then focus on your macronutrients). My advice would be to download an app such as MyFitnessPal, there is a small subscription fee, but it is definitely worth it, scan and weigh everything that goes into your body and monitor whether you are in actually in a 500 calorie deficit. I had a lott of friends who would tell me they are in a 1000 calories deficit, then they would download MyFitnessPal and bang turns out they are in a 100 cal surplus. If you are sure you are hitting the right calories, I would next turn to a calorie calculator online for your body weight, height and age to find your maintenance calories and go from there. Hope that is somewhat helpful, cheers
Second this as a man who has dropped over 50 pounds and now fairly leaned out, currently sitting at 195. I don’t track condiments/sauces at all but I track everything else and have some wiggle room with my weekly calories to go out to happy hour or get drinks after work every now and then. Use a TDEE calculator online to get an estimate of what you should be eating and use a food scale as much as possible. As mentioned above, truly track everything for 3 weeks minimum, this will get rid of all the “noise” and you’ll see a true trend. Adjust the calories accordingly.
If you are in a deficit you WILL drop the weight. Stress may cause binge eating or other consequences as such. Make sure to drink a ton of water daily, get walks in, and take care of yourself as much as possible
Seconded, if you’re not losing weight you’re not tracking calories closely enough
Hop on the ULTIMATE CEO CHALLENGE:
- No food for a month (2000+ calorie deficit)
- Marathon every day (-2500 calories easy)
- Cold showers for two hours a day (increases calorie burn due to hypothermia)
- Wear three suits to work (makes you sweat)
- No sleep (sleep burns zero calories)
- Eat rocks (your body burns calories trying to digest them)
- Consume stimulants (creates involuntary movement leading to calories burned)
- Only walk backwards (takes mental effort, which burns calories)
- Blood let (less blood = less weight & takes calories to replace)
- Fight Khabib every week (do I even have to explain this one?)
- Sit upside-down at your desk (makes your heart work faster -> burns more calories)
Take this advice or risk looking like Rich Handler
bratha send him 2-3 years IB and forget
Think you're training way too much and overloading CNS, which keeps cortisol spiked. 4x a week with intensity is a lot for someone working 40 hours a week, let alone 80 hours.
This would have no impact on not losing weight though, sure you can be overtrained and feel like rubbish but you should still lose a significant amount of weight
4 times a week training with good sleep is by no means overtraining
I think only a very small minority will ever experience overtraining and as someone who has done 9 times a week for three years as semi professional that was still not overtraining
Do you drink? You can easily drink 6000kcal in a weekend if you like the beers and undo everything else you’ve done the entire week
You are not tracking properly if you are not losing weight at 500 cal, the commenter above is correct. It's very easy to weigh meats (raw vs cooked) or oils incorrectly and misjudge your maintenance. If your bf is high enough (>8%), you can seriously try a 1500+ calorie deficit for a short period (4-6 weeks) which is a little over 1kg lost per week. If you supplement with a good multivitamin, eat mostly red meats aiming for 1g protein per lb of bodyweight, and vegetables, with your only carb sources being for pre workout, you should not feel abnormally tired despite the work hours even with such a high deficit. Weigh yourself at the start of each day to see what your maintenance is (9 cal deficit = 1g of fat loss and calculate from there with your calorie intake). Small deficits of 500 are just very difficult to track properly for most people and small discrepancies lead to failed cuts, so I would try a larger deficit. My 2c
Two things suggest to me you haven't maintained a 500 cal deficit for 5 months:
I think you need to look into whatever measurement methods you're using to determine you maintained a meaningful deficit. Either your calorie counting is off or your calorie burning is off.
Most of the experts I've listened to say diet is going to be a more powerful avenue than exercise for getting into caloric deficit. Mike Israetel has a video on YT where he basically is like, how many miles would you have to run just to burn off the 250 calories in a standard snickers bar, you'd have a much easier time just avoiding the snickers bar.
Not sure my personal experience matches what those guys say. I've found I can play basketball for hours with only short breaks, and burn shitloads of calories, and mentally that may be easier than avoiding food. So to each their own.
Doing keto definitely cut my hunger levels though. So maybe its easier to under-eat once you've stabilized blood sugar.
I went on a 15 day zero calorie fast and lost 20lbs. It was difficult on day 2, but days 3-13 were pretty fine. Days 14 and 15 were rough and I was still doing cardio everyday and by day 15 I was so sluggish in the gym I had to go back on food.
That is completely insane.
There's also possibility #3 which no one is mentioning i.e. your metabolism is slowing down from calorie restriction or stress.
Sure, "calories in calories out" makes sense. If you are eating 1,500 per day and burning 2,000, you are at a 500 deficit, but what if you are only burning 1,500 now and are at a zero deficit?
I've had a lot of plateaus that have played out something like this. Lose 20 lbs while existing on a deficit and then the weight loss just stops. I change nothing. In fact, I get more strict and the plateau is still there. I'm definitely not getting magically worse at counting the calories, especially after proven success.
Explaining everything by "calorie in calorie out" just does not account for things like that which lots of people experience unless the metabolism is slowing as a reaction.
Metabolic slowdown is not going to cause a 500 calorie drop in bmr unless you lose a ton of fat free mass this is mostly a myth except in biggest loser type scenarios where you’re losing 40-50 lbs
I was kind of the opposite. I basically completely stopped going to the gym when deal flow picked up and began to eat less healthy food but actually lost quite a bit of weight from stress and just barely eating in general.
your health is your priority
your children and your future teammates = anyone you love = will thank you
prioritize yourself today
go to the gym
Excellent comment, m’bot. Your ability to stay on topic with highly generic advice while proving to anyone reading that you did not actually understand or address the topic at hand is legendary. Well done.
Took me a year of work to see visible results and then it seemed to come overnight
If you were actually in a 500 calorie deficit everyday for 5 months, you would have lost 20-25lbs. You are either not tracking precisely enough or way overestimated your TDEE, which would slowly go down as you lose more and more weight. Too much stress would probably only really affect your ability to put on muscle, which isn't really the goal anyway if you're cutting
Hey, stress and long work hours can absolutely slow down fat loss even with good training and diet. If you’re looking for an extra boost, Ozempic (semaglutide) might help. It works by reducing appetite, helping you feel full longer, and improving blood sugar control, which can make sticking to a calorie deficit easier. I’ve used it and shed 20 lbs in a short time. Ordered mine from Minimal, definitely worth checking out.
Just go get Semaglutide or Tirzepatide from a online clinic and pay out of pocket. I have some fatty friends who took it and are getting cool results from it
There’s zero excuse to have these issues in 2025 now with these meds that do the work for you unless you’re overly risk averse
No normal person I know counts their calories and abides by these stupid diets/guardrails that everyone’s talking about above me; GLP1s fix the source of issues that cause weight gain (hunger signaling, dopamine pathways, insulin sensitivity, gastric emptying, etc).
Since childhood I’ve always been a ripped/leaner person and I have friends on GLP1s now; before they got on them they always asked me how I can go long without eating/don’t care for food and I tell them I literally just don’t and I even find it weird (especially Americans) obsess about food so much and plan everything around it; it always creeped me out how big diet culture is and is a religion for some people especially on TikTok and YouTube grifters
Now that they’re on it they see what I mean and relate to me
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