How much exercise is too much exercise? Medical expert warns about fat loss mistakes you might be making

We’ve all heard “no pain, no gain,” but what if pushing yourself harder is actually slowing you down? Dr Vassily Eliopoulos recently broke the internet with a post explaining how overtraining can mess up fat loss and even tank your hormones. Turns out, training without proper recovery isn’t a badge of honour—it’s a fast track to stalled progress, low energy, and a hormonal crash.

Overtraining can hinder fitness

So, what exactly is overtraining? According to Dr Eliopoulos, it isn’t just about spending hours at the gym. It’s when you combine too much intensity or volume with little to no recovery. Some of the red flags include plateaued fat loss, poor sleep, anxiety, irritability, or even low libido. He explains that if your body feels under threat 24/7, it stops burning fat efficiently and starts holding on to stress instead.



One of the main culprits here is cortisol, the stress hormone. When it stays high for too long, your body starts breaking down muscle, holding belly fat, and lowering testosterone. Add life stress—work overload, emotional struggles, lack of sleep—to the mix, and the body basically goes into “shutdown mode.”

Sharing the post on Instagram, the doctor said that if fat loss feels stuck, motivation has dipped, and testosterone levels are dropping despite clean eating and lifting, the issue might be training too much rather than too little. He added that he has seen this happen in athletes, founders, and fitness enthusiasts, noting that when the nervous system is overworked, fat loss halts and testosterone levels take a hit.

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A post shared by Dr. Vass, M.D. (@dr.vassily)

How to lose fat properly?

So what’s the smarter play? Instead of grinding every day, Dr Eliopoulos suggests training 3–4 times a week, eating enough calories and protein, and making sleep and recovery a priority. Walks, mobility work, even something as simple as breathwork or sauna sessions can do wonders. His mantra? Train hard, but recover harder.