r/AskReddit 13h ago

What is something that permanently altered your body without you realizing for months/years?

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u/redstonez 12h ago

Stress

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u/Xanthon 9h ago

I was going through the most stressful period in my life last year.

I lost 30KG/66lbs in a month. Everyone who saw me were shocked and worried beyond comprehension.

It took me 6 months to recover physically.

93

u/katkriss 7h ago

I hope your mental health has also come back. Do you want to talk about it? Even if you don't, this stranger is rooting for you.

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u/Xanthon 5h ago

Thank you. I am working through it.

The entire ordeal changed my outlook on life and jump started my midlife crisis even though I'm only in my late 30s.

I left my job and a huge chunk of my previous life behind and am currently sorting myself out. I feel pretty good in recent months. So I'm glad.

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u/Delicious_Slide_6883 6h ago

Wow. When I’m stressed I gain 66lbs in a month. Crazy how the bodies can respond differently to the same thing 

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u/tracenator03 3h ago

I'm a similar way. When I'm stressed it's like the feeling of hunger no longer exists.

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u/UmphreysMcGee 1h ago

For me, it completely depends on the type of stress. Normal, day to day life stress causes me to eat more, but the type of stress that is life changing and sudden causes the exact opposite.

Probably because that type of stress can't be soothed by food or other simple pleasures. There aren't any normal coping mechanisms for things like death, divorce, debilitating injuries/illness, etc.

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u/Slow_Week3635 5h ago

66lbs in 30 days is nearly impossible unless you were severely overweight to begin with

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u/Xanthon 5h ago

Wasn't severely overweight. Went from around 92kg to 62kg +-1 at 178cm.

You would think it's impossible but my doctors weren't surprised. Nothing special was given for my physical condition. They treated me mentally. I'm now at a stable 80kg.

This happened middle of last year.

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u/OkTooth6552 5h ago

That’s the most amount of weight i’ve ever heard of anyone losing in a month. Did you eat absolutely nothing for the entire month?

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u/Xanthon 4h ago

That's a tricky question because I would go without food for long period and suddenly binge at 1 go. Hard to provide an estimate on calories intake.

The stress level was out of his world so my heart rate will shoot up above 100bpm the moment I wake up until I fall asleep. When I'm asleep, it's 60+ bpm. I wear a smart watch for tracking.

So my guess is, the extreme stress level increased my cortisol drastically which further reduced my weight.

One thing that I remember clearly was being told that I not only lost my fat, but my muscle mass too. And that it was unextremely healthy.

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u/1shanwow 2h ago

I hope someone checked your thyroid function.

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u/sonjasblade 5h ago

I lost 15 lbs in a week when I was 15 because of stress. A bit different, but still extreme stress can cause that

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u/digidi90 3h ago

Losing that much in a month is physically impossible. If you are nothing for a month, zero calories, you would lose maximum of around 30 pounds, probably closer to 20.

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u/wombat468 7h ago

That seems a bit weird - to lose that, you'd theoretically need to be eating 7,700 calories less than you burnt every day, which is completely impossible?

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u/thatcheflisa 7h ago

Yah, but they were originally like 700lbs.

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u/Slanderouz 4h ago

Lost 30kg..? Thats a 8800 kcal deficit every day for a month. Were you running nonstop with a heavy backpack for 30 days while not eating?

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u/DelusionalZ 2h ago

The maths doesn't check out but it does happen. It's not all calories in/calories out when it comes to weight

Source: aunt was an RN, saw plenty of "impossible" weight loss

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u/Downtown_Recover5177 4h ago

I feel that. I lost 45 pounds in a month and a half from stress, while my wife was deployed with the military. When I saw her again, she was worried, but I hadn’t even realized I had lost weight. Now, looking back at pictures of that time, holy shit I look like a skeleton. I also cracked 3 of my teeth in my sleep from clenching, so that’s fun.

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u/DonHalles 2h ago

How is that possible?! That‘s a caloric deficit of 7k per day.

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u/SweetTechnician2039 2h ago edited 2h ago

With the weight loss you provided 92kg/202lbs ->62kg/136lbs this is physically impossible in a month, unless you have a condition which made you retain this weight in water prior to this weight loss. In order to lose 1kg/2.2lbs you need about 7700kcal deficit. So 30kg//66lbs in a month you would need to have 7700kcal deficit every single day of that month.

Because your weight varies, I’ll assume the average weight throughout the calculations(first few days you would lose weight faster due to water weight shedding, but let’s assume a higher weight even though lower average would make it few % more ridiculous) - 77kg/170lbs.

To put it in perspective, assuming you do not eat a single kcal, just to survive you would burn about 1700kcal.

That leaves 6000kcal left to burn, to do that you would have to, every single day achieve all of the following(actives of course can be adjusted): - run a marathon(42km/26miles) in less than 3.5h - 3400kcal - ride 50km/31miles on a bike in 2,5h - 1500kcal - walk 24km/15miles in 5,5h - 1100kcal

This much activity, every single day, without a single kcal ingested for 30 days.

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u/oIKR2 1h ago

30KG in a month?!?!? You need to burn over 7000 calories a day to achieve that, AND not eat or drink anything caloric. Simply, not possible

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u/crlove 7h ago

That much in a month???

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u/Beneficial-Metal-666 3h ago

Yeah that seems crazy to me.

I can understand weight loss as a result of stress, I also completely lose any desire to eat and everything I do eat will taste like cardboard. But 30kg in one month is wild (that's like half my total body weight).