- Dr Sally Ann Law’s injury recovery
“Seeing the weight-loss and fitness benefits my husband had gained from working with Dave, I decided to sign up for personal training sessions too. I had been suffering from a long-term shoulder injury and was ...
Stress, cortisol and abdominal fat
August 11, 2010 2 Comments
Believe it or not, there is an undeniable link between high stress levels and unwanted body fat (particularly around the abdominal area). I will attempt to justify why and come up with suggestions as to what you can do to reduce your stress levels and speed up your rate of fat loss.
When a stressful situation is upon us, our body has an inbuilt system of dealing with it. It involves our adrenal glands (two walnut sized organs which live just about your kidneys) secreting an important hormone called cortisol. Depending on whether the stressful situation is life threatening or you are just p!$%ed off sitting in a traffic jam will depend on how much cortisol is secreted at any given time.
Cortisol aka ‘the stress hormone’ is very important in keeping us humans alive and able to manage stressful situations. In fact, it also contributes towards:
- Healthy blood pressure levels
- A healthy immune system
- The maintenance of healthy bones, skin and muscles
- The release of amino acids, glucose and fatty acids into the blood stream for the use of energy.
So cortisol is good right? Yes and no! There are two types of stress exposed to our bodies. This first is imminent stress i.e. someone tries to rob you in the street or you are being chased by a madman. The other is ongoing worry about money, work, relationships etc.
Our bodies are designed to deal with the imminent stress (the 1st situation) via the adrenal glands secreting a large amount of cortisol into the blood stream over a short period of time. This is often reffered to as the ‘fight or flight’ response. In the instance of you being confronted by a burglar, your body would automatically secrete cortisol and you would decide in a split second whether you were going to ‘fight’ and confront the danger or ‘flight’ and escape. Cortisol produces this response!
Animals in the wild have this systen down to a tea. Once they have fought or run for their life, they calm down and stop producing cortisol as soon as they are out of danger. You may have noticed that wild animals are very lean and have incredibly powerful immune systems. This is largely due to how well they manage stress and levels of cortisol.
Us humans are not quite so good at dealing with stress as our animal friends. We carry around our problems with us so our adrenal glands are consistently producing too much cortisol on a daily basis rather than dealing with stress on a case by case basis. We could learn a thing or two from animals when it comes to dealing with stress and not carrying it around with us.
Some of the affects on your body of being exposed to ongoing stress and high cortisol levels are as follows:
- Fat storage around your abdominals
- Reduced ability to digest food which increases food intolerances and wind.
- Constant tirdness
- A low sex drive
- A breakdown of muscles, tendons, ligaments
- A drop in metabolic rate (fewer calories being burned by your body)
- An increase in sugar cravings
- An increase in menopausal side effects i.e. hot flushes.
I am very aware that high levels of cortisol could quite easily get in the way of achieving a fat loss target with a client. Before I design an exercise and nutrition programme for you, I complete a BioSignature assessment which will give me a clear idea of your current levels of cortisol. BioSignature allows me to link areas of fat storage on your body to different hormones (one of which is cortisol).
If your body fat reading around your abdominals is out of sync with the other sites on your body, it is highly likely that your levels of cortisol are high. This will be considered when designing your personal programme.
There some obvious steps towards reducing cortisol and stress levels, some of which include:
1. Sleep for 8 hours per night (uninterrupted)
2. Eat less sugar and starchy carbohydrates.
3. Always eat protein for breakfast rather than cereals and toast.
4. Include weight training within your training programme. Too much cardio for some body types can increase levels of cortisol which explains why many people do not lose any weight when training for a marathon.
5. Consume a minimum of 2 litres of water per day.
Related content:
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and almost not got any specific details on other sites, but then great to be here, really, appreciate that.
- Lucas
[...] adrenals have two layers which produce different hormones, some of which include; adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone). Both of these hormones play vital roles in dictating how efficiently your body [...]