Metabolic and Mental Health
Three Tips to Optimize Cortisol to Melt Belly Fat and Keep Lean Muscles.
Lower elevated cortisol levels to lose visceral fat, maintain lean muscle mass, and improve mental health.
Purpose of the Article
In this article, my focus is on elevated cortisol as we can reduce it with simple lifestyle habits, even though some cases might require the attention of qualified medical professionals. However, too little cortisol is hard to fix via lifestyle changes. Thus it may require medical intervention.
Burning belly fat can become more manageable once we defeat the elevated cortisol monster.
Cortisol is a highly tricky hormone. As it is a stress management hormone, people usually do not pay attention to it like metabolic hormones (insulin and leptin).
However, it has as much effect as metabolic hormones in fat loss and lean muscles.
Many fitness enthusiasts with elevated cortisol struggle to lose belly fat even if they run ten miles or spend their day at the gym and cut calories to the extreme. As a result, they lose weight but not belly fat.
From my experience, one of the secrets to melting belly fat is beating the cortisol monster. I use the beast metaphor because it significantly affects our physical and mental health.
I highlight the importance of cortisol in my fat loss, healthy weight management, and mental health articles because I unknowingly suffered from the effects of elevated cortisol for several years.
For example, until I resolved my cortisol issues, I could not tap into my fat stores even though I was highly active and closely watched my calories.
After optimizing cortisol, I managed to have a defined body, especially by losing visceral fat, dissolving loose skin, having more brown fat, and gaining lean muscles. As I mentioned in my pertinent stories, optimizing cortisol also contributed to my mental health.
First, let me give a brief background on the cortisol hormone focusing on why it matters in fat loss, building lean muscles, the healthy weight management process, and its relationship with other hormones.
I introduced six hormones that impact our metabolism in a previous article, including insulin, leptin, ghrelin, growth hormones, sex hormones, and cortisol. Interestingly, these hormones affect each other.
For example, when I mentioned leptin for losing visceral fat, I also touched on cortisol. One of the root causes of leptin resistance is sleep deprivation leading to chronic stress.
So it means that leptin is related to cortisol, managing our stress. Elevated cortisol in the bloodstream indicates chronic stress. Thus, reducing excessive cortisol levels might contribute to increasing leptin sensitivity.
Related to this, I posted an article titled fat loss remains a dream unless we manage cortisol properly.
Interestingly, cortisol is also associated with insulin resistance. Elevated cortisol levels are believed to make the body insulin-resistant.
As documented in this resource by the Diabetes Teaching Center of the University of California:
“Under normal circumstances, cortisol counterbalances the action of insulin. Under stress or if a synthetic cortisol is given as a medication (such as with prednisone therapy or cortisone injection), cortisol levels become elevated, and you become insulin resistant.”
Cortisol also relates to our sex hormones. For example, as concluded in a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine:
“Women who show an increase in cortisol in response to sexual stimuli in the laboratory have lower levels of functioning in certain areas of their sexual life compared with women who show a decrease in cortisol. Stress relating to sexual performance may interfere with sexual arousal.”
Cortisol is closely related to growth hormones.
This paper mentioned that “although excess cortisol inhibits growth and the skeleton, normal cortisol levels are part of the mix that ensures normal growth hormone secretion and bone accumulation in childhood.”
So my point in this background information is that cortisol affects many critical hormones. Thus consequently, it plays a crucial role in our metabolism. Cortisol is an important hormone for managing stress.
Without cortisol, we cannot survive. However, too much or too little cortisol can cause serious health risks.
The key lifestyle factors in reducing elevated cortisol levels are improving sleep quality, recovering before starting the next workout, resting properly, and having fun. I briefly touch on each item based on my experience and link to my previous stories related to each point.
1 — Improve Sleep Quality
Cortisol plays a vital role in maintaining restorative sleep. Circadian is one of the biological rhythms determining our sleep and wakefulness.
Besides, disturbance of the circadian rhythm “has been associated with disease states, such as metabolic disorders, depression, and cancer.”
As pointed out in this paper, “disturbances in circadian rhythm have been linked to chronic diseases such as insomnia, hypertension, diabetes, and depression.”
As I explained in this article., our sleep and wakefulness are managed by two critical hormones, cortisol and melatonin. In short, the higher cortisol, the lower melatonin gets.
When examining my elevated cortisol situation, the endocrinologist said high cortisol in the morning would not be an issue considering my hectic lifestyle.
However, he pointed out that high cortisol levels in afternoons, evenings, and especially at night would adversely affect sleep quality.
He mentioned that reducing caffeine, especially on afternoons, can significantly reduce cortisol and increase melatonin for better sleep.
In addition, I took a few measures to improve my sleep quality.
I ensured my bedroom was dark, cool, and quiet.
I turned off electronic devices at night, preventing my eyes from blue light exposure.
I had Epsom salt baths or took a magnesium tablet.
I had a few minutes of mixed and cold showers.
When I couldn’t fall asleep immediately, I read books that made me sleepy. In addition, I used an air cleaner in the bedroom.
As I mentioned in a recent story, Frederick lost 44 pounds in a year after fixing sleep issues.
2 — Recover from the Effects of Workouts
We love workouts, thinking that exercising the body will help us lose belly fat and increase muscle mass.
This idea is partially true in my experience. One of the roles of exercise is to tear muscle fibers to stimulate them to grow.
Exercise does this by increasing stress. So it naturally increases cortisol to manage stress. However, cortisol is a catabolic hormone.
Too much of it can cause muscle loss. Unfortunately, it favors fat and does not have a catabolic effect on fat tissues, especially in the abdominal area.
If we don’t recover from the tears of the previous exercise, the body keeps producing cortisol. And if we start another intense workout without recovering, the cortisol levels naturally increase.
So when we make this terrible approach a habit, we experience elevated cortisol levels. Worst of all, cortisol consumes valuable glucose from muscles and prevents their growth.
And even worse, when the cortisol levels are too high, it is impossible to utilize stored fat as cortisol mainly activates glucose, not fat molecules.
After learning the effects of cortisol on belly fat, I was not surprised to see bodybuilders working intensely in my gym with huge bellies. I wished they knew the effects of cortisol and learned to slow down a bit.
Nevertheless, recovery speed changes from person to person. In my younger years, I used to recover within 24 hours after gym sessions. However, my recovery times increased to 48 hours as I got older.
As a takeaway, my fitness coach advised me to give at least one day of a break between workout sessions, even for low-impact ones.
3 — Rest and Schedule Fun Activities
While sleep covers rest to a certain amount, we also need to rest during the day, especially at work, to reduce physical and mental stress.
When we neglect rest by not taking breaks, stress accumulates. More stress equates to more cortisol hormone in the body.
Remember that cortisol is a catabolic hormone that might cause muscle loss if it remains elevated due to chronic stress.
One of the antidotes to stress management is having fun. However, busy people avoid or delay fun. Joy is an essential human need. Joyful activities help us balance our hormones and reduce stress.
The best way to include fun in our lives is to schedule fun activities as we schedule work and chores.
Fun is a subjective and individual matter. We all enjoy different activities. Something fun for one person can be stressful for another. Therefore, we need to customize fun based on our preferences and needs.
Many of us enjoy festive activities such as laughing, listening to music, and socializing. These activities, while reducing stress, can also boost our emotional maturity.
Conclusions and Takeaways
From my experience, one of the secrets to melting belly fat and improving lean muscles is beating the cortisol beast, as the cortisol hormone significantly affects our physical and mental health.
Cortisol affects all cells and organs, including the brain.
As I point out in the introduction, cortisol also affects numerous other hormones related to fat metabolism and muscle building. Balancing and optimizing our hormones are critical for our health, fitness, and well-being.
Optimizing the cortisol hormone can also contribute to balancing other hormones. Therefore, I pointed out that fat loss has nothing to do with calories, as hormones have the final say.
We can optimize cortisol by making simple lifestyle changes. In this article, I touched on three critical lifestyle factors. The first one is improving sleep, the second one is recovery after workouts, and the third one is resting and having fun intentionally.
Making these three points, a lifestyle habit can significantly lose fat, maintain a healthy weight, and keep our lean muscles.
As mentioned in my previous article, mental stress is mainly caused by three universal threats affecting our primitive brain. These threats are lack of information, fear of uncertainty, and loss of control.
I provided practical tips about mindfulness practices, emotional regulation, emotional maturity, and cognitive flexibility to address these threats.
Despite healthy nutrition and exercise, the culprit could be elevated cortisol levels if we struggle with fat loss and our waistlines keep growing. It was the case for me in my younger years.
So a wise approach would be to check our cortisol levels with a referral by our medical doctors.
Cortisol hormone can be tested via blood, urine, and saliva. If the situation is complex, family physicians can refer the patients to endocrinologists specializing in optimizing hormones.
I provided more information on other related hormones in an article titled Hormonal Intelligence: Sharpen It to Achieve Optimal Health.
Here’s How a Mature-Age Couple Reversed Diabetes and Trimmed Their Bodies with Lifestyle Habits.
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