When your body is stressed out, you WILL NOT lose fat and you WILL NOT build any of the lean muscle mass you need to increase your metabolism. Our bodies are hard wired to deal with stress first before anything else. If you have been doing all the right things (eating right, exercising, etc...) and not getting results, this might be the the key for you to start getting the results you deserve.
This goes back to our days as hunter/gatherers when stress meant something with big teeth and fast legs was coming at you. That is definitely a priority. But our bodies can feel the same stress when a big project is due at work, financial problems are hitting you hard, etc…
It can also be a compilation of a bunch of smaller stressors coming together to bring you down. Look at your stress life like a bathtub. It doesn’t matter if you have the stress on full blast or if you have it barely on but it is steadily flowing. Eventually it is going to spill over and you are going to have a mess. You need a drain or ideally several drains.
Your job is to figure out what your faucets are, how much they are on, and find the drains to get rid of them. These are non-food/drink ways to rid yourself of stress that I’m talking about. When the food or drink is gone, the stress will come back ASAP.
There are hundreds of ways to manage stress. I will list a few options, but you need to figure out what suits your personality best. And find one that a few that you will actually do.
Here are some ideas to get your creativity going: go for a walk, hit a punching bag, listen to music, talk to a friend about your problems, pet a dog, do a hard workout, yoga, meditation, prayer, get a massage, start a budget, go swimming, go for a bike ride, take a nap.
Do something other than just internalizing your stress. You will be happier, healthier, and you will be able to get results much easier.