You’re eating well, and you’re exercising, yet the scale won’t budge. To make matters worse, it seems like most of the extra weight has settled around your midsection.
Sound familiar?
Many people blame cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone, for stubborn belly fat. While the relationship isn’t quite that simple, chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels do influence your metabolism and even where your body tends to store fat.
Read on as our team at Novell Primary Care and Weight Loss explains this connection and what you can do about it.
Cortisol is dubbed the “stress hormone,” and while it’s true that cortisol does much more than respond to stressful situations, it also does much more. In fact, your body needs cortisol (in healthy amounts) to function properly.
Cortisol is made in your adrenal glands and helps to influence your:
Too much cortisol, however, can wreak havoc on many parts of your body. (Even too little cortisol can lead to complications.) Your body needs to strike the right balance when it comes to cortisol.
When you’re under chronic stress, your body may produce higher levels of cortisol, and persistently elevated cortisol may increase abdominal fat storage in some people, particularly when combined with excess calorie intake and reduced physical activity.
Stress also makes healthy habits harder to maintain. It creates a cycle that’s difficult to break.
Specifically, stress can contribute to stubborn belly fat in these five ways:
Ever notice yourself reaching for cookies, chips, or ice cream after a stressful day? If so, you’re far from alone. According to the American Psychological Association, 33% of adults who overeat report doing so as a distraction method from their stressors.
Chronic stress can increase cravings for calorie-dense foods that are high in sugar and fat, which makes it easier to consume more calories than your body needs.
Not only do you tend to crave foods that are higher in sugar and fat, but your body also tends to store more fat when you’re stressed than when you’re relaxed. Cortisol also influences where your body stores fat, and when you’re stressed, that’s likely to be your belly. This is so common that it even has its own name: “cortisol belly.”
Because abdominal fat is linked to a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, reducing chronic stress may benefit more than your waistline.
Poor sleep and stress often go hand in hand. There’s nothing quite like stress to leave you tossing and turning all night long.
Not getting enough quality sleep can affect hormones that regulate hunger, including ghrelin and leptin. This imbalance can make you feel hungrier while reducing feelings of fullness.
When you’re overwhelmed, workouts are often the first thing to disappear from your schedule. Your body goes into survival mode.
Unfortunately, less physical activity means fewer calories burned. To make matters even worse, skipping your exercise means that you also miss out on one of the best natural stress relievers available.
Chronic stress can influence your mood, motivation, energy levels, eating habits, and metabolic health. Stress creates the perfect storm that makes sustainable weight loss feel much more difficult.
While eliminating stress isn’t realistic, you can adopt small daily habits to help reduce its impact.
Try to:
In many cases, you might find that you benefit most from a combination of these stress-reducing habits.
If you’ve been eating well, exercising consistently, and still struggling to lose weight, there may be additional factors involved.
Hormonal changes, insulin resistance, thyroid disorders, medications, menopause, and certain medical conditions can all make weight loss more challenging.
That’s why, at Novell Primary Care & Weight Loss, our team of primary care providers can look beyond the number on the scale to identify the factors that may affect your metabolism.
As a comprehensive weight loss clinic, we develop a personalized plan that fits your health goals, which may include anything from hormone replacement therapy and injections to nutrition and fitness plans.
If you’re tired of unwanted belly fat, schedule a consultation at our Tallahassee, Florida, office to explore your weight loss options. We also offer walk-in appointments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
