Will Cortisol Make Me Fat and Stressed?
- Main points
- Is stress and cortisol bad?
- What is cortisol, and how is it released?
- Immediate effects of cortisol
- Healthy levels of cortisol
- Why modern day stress is different
- Long term effects of elevated cortisol levels
- Effects on weight gain and body fat
- The answer is…
- What can you do about it?
- Do what you can…don’t stress over it!
Main points:
Cortisol is a necessary hormone for survival that affects multiple body systems.
Its primary function is to supply the body with extra energy during times of stress. It does this by:
➡️ Breaking down proteins and fats into substrates that are later converted into glucose.
➡️ Stimulating the pancreas to release glucagon, which breaks down liver glycogen into glucose.
Modern day stressors can potentially keep cortisol levels elevated long term, leading to many negative health outcomes across the body.
Visceral fat obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension are among these outcomes.
Cortisol is not the cause of stress or obesity. It’s simply a facilitator of negative health outcomes if stress goes unmanaged.
There are plenty of ways to manage your stress including:
➡️ Proper diet, exercise and sleep
➡️ Meditation, deep breathing, gratitude, and mindfulness practices
➡️ Spending time with friends and family
➡️ Doing activities that bring you joy
➡️ Getting professional help
Is stress and cortisol bad?
Prior to my research for this article, my overall impression of cortisol was negative. I mean, how many times can you see posts, videos, and headlines saying “high cortisol = bad” before you subconsciously agree?
It can appear that cortisol is the “one thing” that causes you to be stressed and fat…but is that true? Of course not!
There are healthy stressors that trigger the release of cortisol, such as intense exercise, participating in a competition, interviewing for your dream job, etc.
Stress (to a certain extent) is necessary for growth and development.
You can refer to this “good” stress as eustress – the stress that pushes your boundaries within the limits that you can handle, mixed in with periods of rest and recovery.
What is cortisol, and how is it released?
All right, so if stress and cortisol aren’t all bad, then what is cortisol exactly? Let’s get “science-y” for a minute.
Cortisol is a hormone. Hormones are chemicals that carry messages between different parts of the body telling them what to do, as well as when to do them.
Almost every organ system of the body contains receptors for cortisol, giving this hormone a wide variety of functions spanning across the nervous, immune, cardiovascular, respiratory, reproductive, musculoskeletal, and integumentary systems.
Your body primarily releases cortisol in response to stress, which is “any event in which environmental demands, internal demands, or both, tax or exceed the adaptive resources of an individual, social system, or tissue system,” as defined by psychologist Richard Lazarus.
Your amygdala (the emotional processing center of your brain) picks up on this stress, and signals the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (a pathway that connects the nervous system to the endocrine system) to respond in the following way:
1️⃣ The hypothalamus (located in the limbic system in the brain) sends corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) to the pituitary gland.
2️⃣ The pituitary gland (located underneath the hypothalamus) then sends adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) to the adrenal glands.
3️⃣ The adrenal glands (located on top of the kidneys) release the hormones: cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline), and to a lesser extent, norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
Immediate effects of cortisol
This chain of signals gets your body in a state of preparedness to tackle immediate threats. Cortisol, along with its “colleagues” epinephrine and norepinephrine, does this in a number of ways including:
Increasing blood sugar
Increasing blood pressure
Increasing heart rate
Suppressing immune and digestive systems for the purpose of redirecting energy towards the threat at hand
The effect that may deserve most of your attention is the increase of blood sugar. This additional blood sugar is the energy source necessary for your “fight or flight” against your stressors.
The increased blood pressure and heart rate is the delivery method of this energy to all the systems that require it.
But how does cortisol get its little chemically hands on all this extra blood sugar (aka energy)? It does this through several areas of the body:
Liver:
This is an organ heavily involved in energy metabolism.
Cortisol increases the synthesis of glucose (sugar) via non-carbohydrate sources (a process called gluconeogenesis).
It also slows down the storage of glucose (glycogenesis), allowing it to freely flow through the bloodstream.
Muscles:
Cortisol increases the rate of protein breakdown into its individual amino acids (the building blocks of protein).
These amino acids are then used as substrates for synthesizing glucose (via gluconeogenesis in the liver or kidneys).
Similar to what occurs in the liver, cortisol also slows down glucose storage in the muscles, increasing free flowing blood sugar.
Adipose (Fat):
Cortisol increases the breakdown of fat in a process called lipolysis.
Triglycerides (the building blocks of body fat) are broken down into its component parts: fatty acids and glycerol.
The glycerol can then be used as a substrate for making more glucose through gluconeogenesis.
Pancreas:
This is an organ crucial for digestion and blood sugar regulation.
Cortisol slows the release of insulin, a hormone that allows the cells in your body to absorb glucose.
It also increases glucagon, a hormone that breaks down glycogen (the storage form of glucose) to further supply the body with more blood sugar.
Based on the above,
You can see that cortisol is a catabolic hormone, meaning that it breaks down larger molecules into smaller ones.
Specifically, breaking down muscle and adipose tissue for the purpose of supplying the body with more blood sugar. This might spark knee jerk reactions because catabolism is often perceived as “bad” (…I don’t wanna lose my gainz bruh!).
However, the catabolism associated with cortisol is in service to the body’s survival: resources are freed up in order to be used to fight against, or run away from danger.
Healthy levels of cortisol
Let’s also keep in mind that everything discussed up to this point are the immediate onset effects of cortisol. These are signs of a healthy and normal stress response!
Speaking of healthy, here are the normal levels of cortisol you’d expect to see in your body (dependent on time of day):
6am – 8am: 4-22 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL)
Around 4pm: 3-17 mcg/dL
You’ll notice that cortisol levels are higher earlier in the day. Cortisol is linked to your circadian rhythm and plays an important role in your wakefulness.
It helps you stay on high alert during stressful situations. Therefore, cortisol levels tend to taper off later in the day to allow the body to rest.
Why modern day stress is different
Okay, so it doesn’t seem like cortisol is that bad after all! It helps provide the body with a needed energy boost to navigate stressful situations.
Then what’s all the commotion about?
Cortisol has been a necessary player in our survival as a species. For most of humanity’s existence, threats in the environment were truly life or death scenarios.
Is that rustling a tiger? Or a mouse? Or worse…a hippo?!
Cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine are like “…dude…get the *@$% outta here!!”
As soon as our early ancestors got out of harm’s way, cortisol levels returned back to normal, and they continued on with their day.
Now in modern times, tigers and hippos live in cartoons and safari parks, and all credible threats to your survival have mostly been eliminated. What spikes your cortisol now are:
❌ Demanding (and/or demoralizing) jobs and careers
❌ Social comparison…“Keeping up with the Joneses”
❌ Financial hardship
❌ Marriage and/or relationship issues
❌ Loneliness and isolation
❌ Persistent negative news headlines
❌ Readily available high calorie, highly processed foods
❌ Sleep deprivation
❌ Excessive screen time from devices
Compared to the stressors of our ancestors, these are long lasting, pervasive, interconnected, and complex issues.
They don’t disappear, like a tiger or hippo walking away. They tend to linger like a dark cloud over your head. They’re often influenced by your environment. They also usually affect other areas of your life.
Because of the long term nature of these modern stressors, your body taps into the stress response more often, for longer periods of time, more so than what was necessary in centuries past!
Think about your normal commute to work – 45 minutes each way traveling at an average speed of 60mph (slowpoke!).
Now imagine quadrupling the commute time, while redlining your car at over 120mph. There’s no doubt that your car will deteriorate much, much faster. The same logic can be applied to your body being in a constant state of fight or flight.
Long term effects of elevated cortisol levels
So let’s take a look at the negative health outcomes of having long term elevated cortisol levels. The following symptoms can also result from Cushing’s syndrome: a severe case of excessive cortisol, which requires medical treatment:
Musculoskeletal System:
Muscles and bones can atrophy from prolonged and excessive catabolism. This may increase the risk for osteoporosis and sarcopenia.
Endocrine System:
The adrenal glands may become enlarged, causing even more cortisol production. The pancreas works harder to produce more insulin to manage elevated blood sugar levels, increasing the risk for insulin resistance.
Immune System:
The lymphatic organs may shrink, reducing white blood cell count. The immune system can weaken over time due to cortisol’s immunosuppressive effects.
Digestive System:
The stomach can increase gastric acid and pepsin production, which if left unabated, may increase the risk of ulcer formation.
Nervous System:
Thinking, memory formation, and learning can all be negatively impacted. There’s also an increased risk for mood swings, depression, and anxiety.
Cardiovascular System:
Blood sugar levels can remain elevated long term, increasing the risk for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Blood pressure can also stay elevated long term, increasing the risk for hypertension. In addition, lipid levels (such as cholesterol) in the blood remain elevated (hyperlipidemia).
Integumentary System:
Bruising and purple stretch marks can develop across the skin, particularly around the abdomen.
Reproductive System:
Lack of sex drive. In women, less frequent and irregular periods. In some cases, a complete stoppage of periods (amenorrhea).
Effects on weight gain and body fat
Missing from the list above are all the effects that long term elevated cortisol levels have on body fat and weight gain…which I suspect might be what you’re most interested about!
Unfortunately, stress and weight gain are highly correlated for many reasons. It’s harder to stick to your healthy habits and routines when you’re stressed out, overwhelmed, or tired.
Going to the gym, eating healthy, and maintaining proper sleep hygiene are perhaps the first behaviors to go out the window when you’re running on fumes.
Food is also an accessible and effective tool for alleviating stress in the short term. Sugary and fatty foods release dopamine and serotonin – neurotransmitters that elicit a “feel good” response in the brain that helps calm you down.
No wonder they call it stress eating!
You can see from a surface level that more stress = less exercise + more high calorie foods = weight gain.
But what happens underneath the surface? How does long term, high levels of cortisol impact weight gain and fat accumulation? Here are some of the effects:
Increased Body Fat:
Increases fat synthesis (lipogenesis), enlarges fat cells, and redistributes body fat towards the deep abdomen (visceral fat), chest, and face.
High amounts of visceral fat indicate a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Visceral fat also contains more receptors for cortisol than subcutaneous fat, perhaps enhancing its effects.
Increased Appetite:
Appears to increase neuropeptide Y and ghrelin – two hormones that increase appetite. Simultaneously, high cortisol seems to decrease leptin, a hormone that induces fullness.
Increased Food Reward:
Increases your motivation to seek out food, as well as increasing the reward you feel from eating. Talk about a double whammy!
The answer is…
After reading all of that, it’s no wonder why cortisol is blamed for your misfortunes! There’s a level of truth to the scapegoating!
It’s important to note that it’s most true when cortisol is out of balance. And out of balance for a long period of time. You don’t want to eliminate cortisol, because it’s a necessary hormone for your survival.
There is such a thing as too little cortisol – a condition called Addison’s disease that is potentially life threatening. So to answer the question “Will cortisol make me fat and stressed” I’d say this: yes and no.
Yes, long term elevated cortisol levels can play a role in increasing body fat levels, particularly the more problematic visceral fat.
No, cortisol is not the sole cause of your stress and fat accumulation. It’s simply a facilitator of negative health outcomes if you do not manage your stress.
What can you do about it?
All right…enough with the scary health outcomes. No more fear mongering! Let’s discuss how you can take charge and keep your cortisol levels in balance.
A lot of these are gonna seem like obvious “duh” types of solutions, and that’s because stress management isn’t rocket science.
However, they’re hard to do consistently (like most healthy habits). Take a look, and see if you can incorporate more of them into your weekly routine.
Exercise:
This trains your body to regulate cortisol levels over the long run. My recommendation is to do physical activity that you love.
Taking intentional walks and increasing your step count is a great place to start. Gradually build up the level of activity you do in a manner that is manageable for you.
If you’re already an avid exercise enthusiast, evaluate whether you have enough recovery time in your routine. Exercise in itself is a stressor, so it is possible to overdo it if you disregard rest and recovery.
Eat well and eat mindfully:
Increase the amount of whole, minimally processed foods in your diet. This includes vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans, eggs, lean cuts of meat, fish, nuts, whole grains, etc.
Also pay attention to how you eat. Are you chewing your food fully and taking in the flavors, or are you wolfing it down in order to get to your next meeting? Try eating at a slower pace, and enjoy the zen vibes!
Spend time with good company:
Being around people who genuinely support you and want the best for you can do wonders for alleviating your stress. Feeling heard, seen, and understood can help remove some of the burden you carry from your stressors.
If you’re more introverted in nature, good company might be yourself! Having time in solitude can enhance your feelings of peace and contentment. It can also give you opportunities to reflect on your life and put things in perspective.
Meditation:
Sometimes the main source of stress may be the endless chatter going on in your head. Take some time to sit down, close your eyes, and do absolutely nothing.
Let the thoughts flow, but don’t engage with them. Watch them pass by like clouds in the sky.
By doing this enough times, you’ll realize the ephemeral state of your thoughts and emotions…they appear randomly…and then they leave on their own accord, if you let them!
Practice gratitude:
How much of your stress comes from comparing yourself to people who, on the surface, seem to do better than you?
Let’s flip that comparison on its head. There’s about a billion people in this world who live on less than $2 a day, with no running water, no basic healthcare, no food security, and limited to no electricity (no lights at night, no refrigerator, etc.).
How would your life be different if you didn’t have those basic necessities? Not saying this to guilt you into feeling like an ungrateful brat (because I’m no better), but to let you know that there are people in the world who would love to be in your position right now.
If you’re able to go online and read this article, you probably enjoy a couple of things that you currently take for granted. So take some time and think about what you can be grateful for!
Nothing is too small to be grateful for, and it becomes easier to enter this state of mind as you continue a regular gratitude practice!
Deep breathing:
When was the last time you took a deep breath? Remember how good it felt? Here’s a technique you can try – it’s called “box breathing”. Think 4 sides of a box: Inhale for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold for 4.
Apparently this is a technique used by the US Special Operation Forces in the military when under extreme mental distress! If it’s good for soldiers on the battlefield, then it’s good for you and me!
Sleep more and sleep better:
It’s undoubtedly true that getting enough high quality sleep has a slew of health benefits. It’s a night and day difference when comparing how you show up when you’re well-rested vs when you’re sleep deprived.
With proper sleep, you’re less irritable, less reactive, clearer on your values and goals, and more capable and resourceful in solving problems. In other words, you handle stress better when you’re well rested.
Try to make gradual increases to your sleep, and reduce the habits that keep you up late. Make your room as dark and quiet as possible. Set appropriate sleep and wake times, and stick to them as best you can. It’s worth it!
Get out in nature:
You can start with something as simple as a walk in a park. Your dog will love it too! Seeing some greenery, a natural body of water, or even looking up at the sky, can help you see the bigger picture.
You’re a part of a thriving ecosystem on a big blue ball circling an even bigger fireball in a vast canopy of lights, gas, and darkness…you’re part of something a whole lot bigger than yourself, and that can make your stressors seem a little smaller and more manageable!
Engage in hobbies:
Inject some fun and joy into your life. Listen to music, play video games, go out with your partner, plant a tree, build a table, prank your dog, write an article about cortisol and stress…whatever floats your boat!
There’s more to life than work, keeping up with the Joneses, impressing your parents, getting more likes on Tik Tok, increasing numbers on a screen, etc. You matter, your interests matter, so make some time and do you!
Do what you can…don’t stress over it!
See anything that you’d like to try? Maybe you want to do them all! However, like most things, it’s better to start small.
Approach stress management as a continuum – do what you can now, and improve incrementally. If you’re so stressed that you’ve only got a few minutes of downtime, then perhaps a couple deep breaths is a good place to start.
Once you get the hang of chilling out, then you can add in a walk by the river. Then add in music. Then add in gratitude. And so on, and so on.
I understand that some stress can be intractable and overwhelming…the ones that seem like you’ve got no control at all.
In those cases, perhaps professional help can be an option. We all need some help from time to time, so don’t be afraid to reach out to a mental health professional in your area!
And of course, if you ever want to chat with me about anything mentioned in this article, or if there’s anything that you feel should be added, or revised, please email newton@newtonkwong.net.
Appreciate you taking the time to read to the end, and I’m hoping that you have a “stress-balanced” day!
Whoa you made it to the end!! Thanks for reading 🙂
If you found this article helpful, please check out my other ones!
Also, if you need help with any of the following:
⭐️ Losing weight ⭐️
⭐️ Gaining muscle ⭐️
⭐️ Managing your stress ⭐️
⭐️ Improving your nutrition ⭐️
⭐️ Increasing your daily energy levels ⭐️