If you’ve ever felt puffy around the middle despite doing your best working out and eating well, the culprit may not be food or a lack of exercise. It could be cortisol.
Cortisol is sometimes referred to as the “stress hormone,” but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad; in fact, we need cortisol to provide us with quick energy.
But it can easily become elevated as we navigate midlife, hormonal shifts, and demanding schedules. And when your cortisol levels stay high, everything from your metabolism to where your body stores fat can be affected.
Let’s look at four key factors that keep cortisol up and simple ways to bring it back into balance.
1. Prioritize Consistent Sleep
Cortisol naturally rises in the morning to wake us up and should fall dramatically at night to allow for deep rest. If we consistently get less than 7–9 hours of quality sleep, we disrupt this crucial daily rhythm. This sleep-deprivation signal causes cortisol levels to stay high all day, increasing cravings and slowing down metabolic function. Ensuring consistent, sufficient sleep is the foundation for resetting your body’s stress response.
2. Practice Mindful Recovery
Intense exercise is an acute stressor that spikes cortisol. That’s healthy if followed by adequate rest. But if you skip recovery, your body doesn’t get the necessary window for hormone levels to drop. Chronic over-exercising prevents recovery, which can actually break down muscle tissue and hinder weight management. Incorporate gentle movement like Mobility or Yoga, and always honour your rest days to allow cortisol levels to normalize.
3. Manage the Hormonal Shift
Around perimenopause, declining estrogen lessens the hormonal “brake” on cortisol, making the body more sensitive to stressors and leading to higher baseline cortisol levels. This age- and hormone-related increase tends to favour fat storage specifically around the midsection (visceral fat), even with consistent effort. Recognizing this connection allows us to focus energy on targeted stress-reduction practices as a core fitness strategy.
4. Practice Daily Stress Management
Chronic stress from work, traffic or daily worries signals the adrenals to release cortisol non-stop. This sustained elevation disrupts metabolism and promotes insulin resistance. You can interrupt this cycle with intentional moments of calm. Just 3–5 minutes of focused, slow breathing—inhaling deeply into your belly and exhaling fully—sends a direct message to your nervous system that it’s safe to lower cortisol production.
A Simple Path to Balance
Cortisol is necessary for life, but chronic elevation due to poor sleep, overtraining, hormonal shifts, or constant stress sabotages your metabolism and energy. The solution lies in small, intentional actions: prioritize sleep, make recovery part of your workout, and use simple breathing techniques to bring stress levels down. Start today; your body will reward you with better energy and easier balance.
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