A Deep Dive into the Link Between Cortisol and Weight Gain: Exploring the Cortisol Connection
- Kathi
- Apr 15
- 12 min read
Ever find yourself craving a snack (or three) even though you are not hungry? Or maybe you have noticed some extra pounds expanding around your middle? Ever feel wired but tried? These outward physical symptoms are your body’s response to too much stress.
Our bodies have a natural reaction to stress, and it involves a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is designed to help you feel alert and help you respond to a threat by dilating your pupils quickly so you can see better, to pump blood to your extremities so you can run faster, and release energy from storage. These reactions are great when you are in an immediate threat situation. What happens when stress becomes a constant companion? It can mess with your metabolism, drive weight gain, especially around your belly, along with a host of other health problems including heart conditions, fatty liver, diabetes, hormonal dysregulation, etc.
Understanding Cortisol and Its Function
The Role of Cortisol in the Body
Your adrenal glands are located just above your kidneys, and they produce several hormones, including a glucocorticoid called cortisol. Cortisol is not always bad and is released:
As part of your natural Circadian Rhythm: Cortisol levels should naturally be elevated in the morning and fall in the evening. (To learn more about sleep and cortisol Click HERE and HERE)
As part of your natural Blood Sugar Regulation: When blood sugar levels drop, the body releases cortisol to liberate energy from stored adipose tissue and fatty acids.
To assist in improving your response to Hard Exercise: Intense exercise can trigger a temporary increase in cortisol levels to help you adapt to the level of exertion.
To suppresses appetite: In the short-term, cortisol can suppress appetite and help you feel satisfied.
Cortisol is also a big player in the "fight or flight" response. When you face a threat, cortisol gives you energy to run or fight. The problems with cortisol arise when cortisol levels stay high for too long or cortisol is continually released.
A note on what Chronic stress looks like: You did not get a full night rest because your child woke you up in the middle of the night (surge of cortisol), then it was hard to fall back to sleep. Now, you are up early to get the kids to school, and on the way there, they are driving you crazy with bickering (surge of cortisol), and a car cuts you off almost causing a wreck (surge of cortisol). Now, you are late to work and frustrated because you cannot find a parking spot close by (surge of cortisol). Your co-worker is out, and you have to rush around doing their job too (surge of cortisol). At lunch, you skip eating because you want to lose weight (surge of cortisol), then the school calls (surge of cortisol), and you must call your husband to go pick up the sick one (surge of cortisol). On the way home, you are listening to all the bad stuff on the news (surge of cortisol). At home, you are worried and need to take extra steps to care for your sick kiddo (surge of cortisol), so dinner is delivery filled with starch and sugar (surge of cortisol). Now, time to relax, and it’s your husbands turn to pick a show to watch, and its full of fast cars and gun fire (surge of cortisol). At bedtime, you want to read an article before going to sleep, so the bedroom lights are on (surge of cortisol). Now, go to sleep….you are tired but feel too wired to fall asleep starting the cycle again. How often do we push cortisol before our bodies are overwhelmed?
The Link Between Cortisol and Weight Gain
Chronic stress keeps cortisol inappropriately elevated and that can derail your metabolism, create blood sugar ups and downs that cause cravings, make sleep difficult, increase systemic inflammation, lower testosterone production, and cause your body to store more fat, especially around the middle. All of these things can make it more difficult for your body to be sensitive to insulin.
Cortisol's Impact on Blood Sugar, Metabolism, & Insulin Resistance
If we think of insulin as a taxi driver, it transports sugar to your cells for energy. When you are insulin resistant, sugar stays in your blood because the insulin driver cannot park sugar into the cells. All this free-floating sugar leads to higher blood sugar levels. At some point, the insulin taxi has to drive sugar to the liver, and the liver parks this extra sugar as fat. Why is this not so good?
There is a direct link between chronic high cortisol and insulin resistance, and insulin resistance not only puts the pounds on, it leads to metabolic syndrome (and PCOS). Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms that include: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, too much fat around the waist, and high cholesterol or triglyceride levels, that leads to heart disease, vascular disease, diabetes, and hormone dysregulation.
Cortisol and Fat Storage
When there is chronically high cortisol, the liver will store extra sugar as fat around your belly as visceral fat. Visceral fat is found in the spaces surrounding the liver, intestines, and other organs like the omentum, an apron-like flap of tissue that lies under the belly muscles and blankets the intestines. The omentum gets harder and thicker as it fills with fat.
What does it matter where my fat is stored? Visceral fat is biologically active. One of the most important developments in understanding fat cells is that the visceral fat cells are an endocrine organ (like your thyroid), secreting hormones and other chemicals that have far-reaching effects on other tissues like your muscles, heart, blood vessels, liver, and thyroid. For instance, visceral fat will make more proteins called cytokines. Cytokines can trigger low-level inflammation, elevating the likelihood of developing heart disease, painful joints, sore muscles, and other chronic conditions.
Identifying Symptoms of High Cortisol Levels & The Link Between Cortisol and Weight Gain
Knowing the signs of chronically high cortisol can help you take control and seek the health support you need to repair your body and adjust habits to down regulate cortisol.
Some of the most common:
Fatigue (Doesn’t everyone have this? A clue to how prevalent chronic high cortisol is in today’s world)
Muscle Weakness or chronically sore
Slow healing bruises and injuries
Difficulty falling asleep
Trouble seeing in bright light
Dizzy especially when going from sitting to standing quickly
Sick frequently
Difficulty staying focused and difficulty with memory recall
Anxiety and depression – feel wired but tired
Desire sugar or salty (or both) food or drinks (crave the 3pm pick-me up snack)
Other hormonal dysregulation (thyroid, low testosterone, disrupted ovulation)
Strategies for Managing Cortisol Levels and Weight
What can you do to help cortisol work for you instead of against you? Plenty! The following strategies involve lifestyle changes (because if you keep doing the same thing, you will likely get the same results).
Simple and low effort techniques to reduce feelings of stress:
Try breathing exercises. Breathing in through your nose for 4 seconds in, hold 4 seconds, breath out 4 seconds, hold for 4, repeat for 1 min. Breathing techniques can calm your system. Dr Dobelbower really likes Buteyko breathing and Salvia Harris is a trained provider if you want to dig deeper.
Meditation is another mind and body calming technique. There is a myriad of apps that are out there. They are all useful and can range from free to a small subscription fee.
Get laughing. Really. Play games, enjoy a comedy show, joke around with friends and family.
Spend time journaling. Even just writing a few reaffirming phrases can help. Try the practice Silver Linings.
Make a to-do list and a not-to-do-list. To-do lists help organize your tasks and keep you on track. That can help you decide what needs to be done, lessening your feelings of helplessness and chaos.
o A Not-to-do list is equally as important. If you have things on your to-do list that just do not need to be done, at least by you, delegate or mark them off your list.
Get outside in the sunshine. Getting sunshine on your skin will help drive happy hormones (7), improve sleep, and at the right time of the year, help you get some vitamin D.
Pursue a hobby and schedule time to develop it. Even 15 mins a couple of times per week can help.
Lifestyle Support
Training (exercise) is a good way of reducing both physical and emotional stress. When experiencing high levels of stress, aim for shorter (10-30 mins) and moderate intensity (light sweat, you can still say words) training. Movement is important for a healthy body and mental state. Keep in mind that too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. Too hard or too long of a training session when a person is experiencing adrenal fatigue can feel good in the moment, but in the long run, it can make the adrenal fatigue and cortisol expression worse. When in doubt about what to do, a 10-30 min walk at a moderate pace can do just about everyone good.
Getting enough quality sleep is crucial. Adults need 7-9 hours each night that has both REM and deep sleep. For those of you with a sleep tracker, the percentage of REM sleep should be around 20-25% of your total sleep and deep sleep should make up around 10-15% of your total sleep.(5)
If you find it hard to get enough quality sleep, check out this article. Cortisol is an integral part of your natural circadian rhythm. Cortisol should elevate early in the morning, coordinating with morning sunshine, to signal your mind and body to be awake and alert. Cortisol should be at it lowest in the late evening. Bright light, especially blue light, loud noises, or exciting activities or images will spike cortisol. Watching movies/shows, screens, or video games in the evening will spike cortisol and send the Be Awake and Alert signals to your body and mind.
What can you do to turn down the cortisol in the evenings? Lower lights, turn off screens, and begin relaxing activities 1 hour before your desired bedtime. If your mind is worrying about something you do not want to forgot for the next day, take 1-3 mins and write it down and put it where you will see it tomorrow. That can help decrease the brain loop that can happen where you are thinking about tomorrow.
Be careful with taking medications or using cannabis (1,6). These options might sedate you but can disrupt REM sleep, and it is this sleep phase that supports healing and repair, immune function, brain development, creative and problem solving, and memory consolidation.
Chamomile, peppermint, valerian, and passiflora teas can be relaxing and help you sleep. For other tips on how to wind down, check out this article.
Vitamin D supplementation is likely necessary since stress can impact on the body's ability to absorb and synthesize vitamin D. When cortisol levels are high, the vitamin D receptors are downregulated, making it more difficult for the body to absorb vitamin D efficiently, resulting in a deficiency. Take 5,000IU-10,000IU daily (especially in northern latitudes) in D3 form.
Eating right for a healthy stress response is another important aspect of reducing your cortisol burden. The less you push insulin and experience high blood sugar or too low blood sugar the less cortisol expression. Focus on enjoying whole foods like:
o Animal proteins (or plant proteins if vegan): If you are not getting enough protein, you could have deficiencies in the nutrients that play a role in your mood and how your brain functions. The hormones and neurotransmitters that make up your body’s stress response are made from the amino acids you get from protein in foods. Without adequate protein, your ability to respond to normal everyday stressors can be disrupted. Ever hear the saying, “Making a mountain out of a mole hill”?
Additionally, animal proteins are also high in a whole array of B vitamins and all eight B vitamins play a role in stress regulation. And while some B vitamins are found in veggies and nuts, B12 needs to be supplemented if you do not eat animal meats.
And animal proteins also contain zinc. Zinc is critical for optimal adrenal function as zinc plays a role in cortisol release, and adequate zinc levels stabilize serum cortisol levels over time. Zinc deficiency impairs the healthy stress response, contributes to insomnia, exacerbates hormone imbalances, and therefore to the onset of adrenal fatigue.
o Veggies, especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts, are high in vitamin c and therefore help to restore a healthy response to stress. Vitamin C helps build and support adrenal gland function (2,3). Healthy adrenal glands will support a more appropriate cortisol response to everyday events. Cruciferous vegetables are also high in calcium and magnesium, and both are natural relaxers.
o Veggies with prebiotic fibers like onion, leeks, garlic, avocado, asparagus (also cruciferous), jicama, and dandelion greens support a healthy gut. Around 90% of your body’s serotonin is made in the GI tract. Having a healthy gut supports serotonin production and that increases feelings of happiness and well-being and that in turn decreases cortisol levels.
o Keep your fruit to 1-2 servings per day and keep the sugar load low. Berries like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries are high in vitamin C and minerals that support healthy adrenal function.
The flip side of eating right is reducing or eliminating processed foods. Foods that come in a bag, box, can, or from a drive-thru are generally void of health supporting nutrients and are high in sugar, inflammatory oils and/or chemical ingredients.
o While your body will crave caffeine and stimulating foods and drinks, it is best to avoid drinks with caffeine, especially in the afternoon or evening as that is when you least want a cortisol spike. Sugar in foods that convert to sugars in your body (think starchy veggies, tropical fruits, soda) will also stress your body and drive more cortisol. A good rule of thumb for good health is to avoid drinking your calories.
A word on fasting. Fasting can be a great tool to use, but it can also cause more adrenal dysfunction. If you are using fasting and find that it leaves you fatigued, foggy, or moody, it might be wise to do shorter intermittent fasting times like 10-12 hours eating, 12-14 hours not eating. Going too long will push more cortisol.
Play this game. Every time a negative idea or situation comes forward, see if you can spin it differently. For example: Today is the day I must take my mom to her appointment. It is hard to help her when she complains so much. SPIN IT. Today is the day I help mom get to her appointment so no one else has to feel uncomfortable with her complaints.
It may seem silly or difficult at first but give it a try. Some, not all, of our daily stress comes from how we perceive what is happening around us. Change how you think about it, change how you react to it.
When your stress response has gone haywire, the goldilocks effect needs to be put into place. Too much of things like food, fasting, rest, relaxation, and exercise can cause just as much as too little. Moderation in intensity or duration may be required to help your body heal.
When to Seek Professional Help
If your symptoms stay even after employing the above recommendations for more than 1 month, it is time to seek a health care provider who can evaluate your stress response. Additionally, if you have other health issues along with the symptoms of high cortisol, it is wise to seek a clinical nutritionist or functional medicine practitioner. Getting help is a sign of strength and will help you much faster than going it alone.
Tests & Evaluation
At Park County Chiropractic, the doctors will often order tests to measure cortisol levels throughout the day. These tests give a picture of how your stress response is disrupted and will help guide treatment. Other labs tests may be done to evaluate other body systems that could be part of the overall stress response.
There are also other evaluations the doctors might use during your in-clinic examination. Most are simple and non-invasive, making them easy and low cost for you.
Treatment Options
Treatment options can vary depending on the stage of adrenal stress and the way your cortisol is presenting. Lifestyle changes are often required to mitigate the constant overstimulation of cortisol. Though that may sound difficult, changing a daily habit can be done, and the benefits are often seen in a matter of a few weeks.
Supplementation can help repair and support healthy adrenal function and improve appropriate cortisol function. It is not unusual that other body systems will need to be supported to ensure your adrenal glands return to healthy function. The GI tract, liver, thyroid, kidneys, and ovaries/testicles have a direct relationship with your adrenal glands and affect your stress response. Plan on a program to support your entire body.
Chiropractic care can be especially helpful if you are also experiencing pain or discomfort physically. By reducing acute physical pain or teaching you how to manage chronic pain, the body can reduce cortisol. Plus, when you physically feel less pain, you are more likely to exercise, laugh, relax, hang-out with friends and family and engage with activities that you enjoy, and that too will help decrease your cortisol burden.
Health, Weight, and The Cortisol Connection
In many instances, cortisol, stress, and weight gain are linked. People often think that weight loss is a matter of less food in and more energy out, but it can be more complicated than that. Focusing on building health is a better goal. An appropriate stress response can change the way your physiology shapes your body composition. It can also improve your immune system, hormonal system, and your mood. And a healthy, happy body is what we are all looking for in the end.
1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223024045 CBD, disrupted REM and memory
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38010274/ Vitamin C
3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7024758/ Vitamin C
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19956/ Sleep patterns
6. https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.90.15_supplement.P1.109 Medications and REM
7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780444641250000013 Sunshine and serotonin
Kathi loves helping people find ways to put healthy habits into their lives. She educates patients in rehab and functional movement, nutrition, and lifestyle choices that can make a difference.
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