There’s a lot of hysteria around cortisol and abdominal fat lately.
Cortisol is the fitness industry’s latest scapegoat, and it’s being blamed for that stubborn belly fat you just can’t seem to lose. Fitness influencers are claiming anything that raises your cortisol levels should be avoided like the plague, or you’ll never be able to lose weight.
Is there any truth to this?
Is cortisol really the cause of your stubborn abdominal fat?
And if so, how do you get rid of it?!
In this article, we’re going to go over the connection between cortisol and abdominal fat, and how to get rid of it. You’ll learn the science behind cortisol and whether or not you need to worry about it.
Let’s get started.
What is cortisol?
First things first, let’s define what cortisol is.
Cortisol is best known as your body’s stress hormone. When your body perceives a threat or experiences stress, it will increase the production of cortisol.
This increase of cortisol is a natural response to stress, and it’s meant to help you deal with the stressful situation. Once the stressful situation resolves, your cortisol levels go back down.
While cortisol gets a bad reputation, it actually plays an important role in a number of different things your body does, like:
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- Regulating blood pressure
- Maintaining blood sugar levels
- Controlling your sleep
- Managing how your body uses protein, fats and carbohydrates
Your cortisol levels will naturally fluctuate throughout the day. They are highest in the morning upon waking up, and gradually decrease as the day goes on.
Before we go any further, there is an important distinction that needs to be made. There is a BIG difference between your cortisol levels rising in the short term and having chronically high levels of cortisol.
Let’s say you’re driving down the highway when all of a sudden you hear sirens and see flashing red and blue lights in your rear view mirror. Your heart starts beating faster and your palms get sweaty as you realize you’re being pulled over for speeding.
This is an example of short term stress. Your cortisol levels will rise temporarily to help you deal with the stressful situation before falling back to normal.
Now let’s say you’re going through an extremely stressful period of your life that lasts weeks or even months. Maybe you just had a baby and you’re getting no sleep, or you have a deadline approaching at work and you’re under a lot of stress.
This would be an example of long term stress and could lead to your cortisol levels being raised for a prolonged period of time.
It’s important to understand the difference because when we’re talking about cortisol and abdominal fat, we are talking about long term stress causing chronically high levels of cortisol.
Gaining weight vs. gaining fat
While we’re making distinctions, there’s another one we need to get out of the way..
Gaining weight on the scale is not the same thing as gaining fat!
When you step on the scale, you are measuring more than just your body fat. The scale measures everything in your body, including your muscle, bones, and all the fluid in your body at any given time. This is why your weight can vary so much throughout the day and you can gain weight overnight.
When you’re stressed and your cortisol levels rise, your body will retain more water than usual. This water retention will increase your weight on the scale temporarily.
While there is a connection with chronically high levels of cortisol and fat gain, it’s not as clear cut as you might think.
Cortisol and abdominal fat
If you’re new around here, I talk all the time about how the only way to gain fat is to be in a calorie surplus. This is when you consume more calories than your body burns.
So how does cortisol fit into this?
Very simply.. If you’re not in a caloric surplus, you won’t gain fat. Even if you’re extremely stressed for a long period of time.
This was shown in one of the most brutal weight loss studies ever done. At the end of World War II, Dr. Ancel Keys and his colleagues conducted an experiment where they starved 36 men for six months. Known as the “Minnesota Starvation Experiment”, Dr. Keys set out to study the effects of extreme starvation.
The subjects of the study also had to do physically demanding labor on top of being in an extreme calorie deficit. One could argue that they were under extreme stress.. And it would make sense that their cortisol levels were elevated throughout the study.
However, even with all of the stress the subjects were under, they all continued to lose weight until the end of the study (1). This shows that stress and high cortisol levels will not cause you to gain fat if you are in a calorie deficit.
With that being said, cortisol might still be responsible for that unwanted abdominal fat you’ve been trying to get rid of, but just not in the way you might think..
Cortisol doesn’t directly cause fat gain.. But it might influence where you store it
When you are in a calorie surplus, it does appear that being constantly stressed and having high levels of cortisol might influence where you store your body fat.
One study looked at women with high levels of abdominal fat and how they responded to stress. The researchers found a correlation with high levels of cortisol and abdominal fat. This led the researchers to conclude that high levels of cortisol might lead to you storing more fat in your belly than anywhere else (2).
Another study looking at men with high levels of abdominal fat also drew the same conclusion (3).
Keep in mind that these studies only found a correlation between cortisol and abdominal fat. The researchers couldn’t establish a direct cause.
So what does this mean for you?
Having high cortisol levels isn’t going to prevent you from losing weight if you are in a calorie deficit. It just might make it more likely that you’ll store fat in your belly if you are consuming too many calories overall.
The real reason you’ve gained abdominal fat
There’s no denying that for some people, stress can absolutely lead to fat gain.
It’s just not a direct cause.
The real reason stress can lead to abdominal fat is consuming too many calories. When you’re stressed, there are a number of factors that make gaining fat easier.
Hormones
When you’re stressed, a hormone called ghrelin increases (4). Ghrelin is known as your body’s hunger hormone, and is responsible for stimulating your appetite. This means that when you’re stressed out, you’re going to be hungrier than usual!
This increase in ghrelin won’t directly cause you to gain fat, but it will make it more likely that you end up eating too many calories.
Your sleep is also probably not the best when you’re stressed out. Whether you’re tossing and turning over a work deadline or you’re up all night with a crying baby, odds are your sleep is going to suffer when you’re stressed.
When you’re sleep deprived, a hormone called leptin decreases (5). Leptin is responsible for telling your brain that you’re full. Again, this won’t directly affect your ability to lose fat, but it’s going to make it easier to eat too many calories.
Increased cravings
Being stressed out and food cravings go hand-in-hand. Nobody who’s stressed out is craving salads and grilled chicken!
This has been shown in the research as well. In one study, subjects were split into two groups. One group was made to complete tasks they could complete, while the other group had to complete tasks the researchers knew they could not complete, therefore increasing their stress levels. Both groups were given access to as many snacks as they wanted. The high stress group favored high calorie sweet and savory snacks and as a result, ended up eating more calories than the low stress group (6).
These cravings, combined with increased hunger levels and a decreased fullness response from your brain are going to make it much more likely that you end up overeating when you’re stressed!
Decreased activity
When you’re stressed, you’re probably going to move around less.
It’s likely that whatever you’re stressed about is going to be the most important thing in your life, and as a result you might skip workouts and get less activity each day.
Because your activity levels decrease, you’re going to burn less calories each day. This decrease in calorie burn will make it more likely that you end up eating more calories than you burn and gain fat.
How to get rid of belly fat
Now that you know the real reason that high stress and cortisol levels can lead to abdominal fat, what can you do about it?
Here are some practical ways you can get rid of that stubborn belly fat.
Calorie deficit
First and foremost, you need to be in a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is the only way to lose fat!
There are many ways you can be in a calorie deficit, but I think counting calories is by far the fastest and most efficient way. If you’re not sure how many calories you need, you can use my calorie calculator below:
Cal’s calorie calculator
Counting calories isn’t the only way to be in a calorie deficit. Any diet you’ve ever heard of works by putting you in a calorie deficit. So if counting calories isn’t your thing, there are many other ways to make sure you’re in a calorie deficit.
Getting enough protein
If you want to make losing weight infinitely easier on yourself, you need to be getting enough protein every day.
Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, meaning it will fill you up more calorie for calorie than carbohydrates or fat. If you’re trying to lose fat, this is important because staying full is going to make it easier to be in a calorie deficit.
High protein diets also burn more calories than low protein diets do. This is because it costs your body more calories to break down protein than carbohydrates or fats.
I have most of my fat loss clients shoot for 1 gram of protein per pound of goal body weight.
So for someone who weighs 180 pounds and wants to lose 30 pounds, they would try to get 150 grams of protein per day.
Stress management
Once you make sure you’re in a calorie deficit, you need to find ways to reduce your stress. Having too much stress won’t directly affect your ability to lose weight, but it’s going to make it a lot harder!
Everyone handles stress differently, and I’m not here to tell you how you should manage your stress. What I will say is you need to avoid things like drinking alcohol and using comfort food as a way to manage your stress if your goal is to lose belly fat.
Personally, I like checking things off my to-do list. Nothing eases my stress more than knowing I’ve gotten done what I need to.
Here are some other ways you can cut back on stress:
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- Exercise: Getting workouts in throughout the week is a surefire way to cut back your stress. You might not be able to get your full workout routine in when you’re dealing with a stressful time, but something is always better than nothing.
- Sleep: I know this isn’t always possible, especially if you’re a new parent. But for everyone else, getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night should be a priority.
- Walking: I’m going to hit more on this in a minute, but simply getting more steps in throughout the day is an easy way to boost your metabolism and reduce your stress levels.
- Learn to say “no”: This is a big one for me as well. If you’re like me, you end up committing yourself to more than you can handle, which leads to stress.
- Breathing: I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about breathing techniques to help reduce stress. I’ve personally never tried it, but it might help you!
The bottom line is that cutting back on stress is going to make it easier to not overeat on calories.
Step goal
Having a step goal for yourself is a simple way to make sure you’re staying active, even during stressful periods of your life. Staying active is going to help increase your metabolism, or how many calories you burn each day.
And besides that, it’s just going to make you feel better. Walking, and physical activity in general, is going to release endorphins that improve your mood and reduce stress.
I have most of my fat loss clients shoot to get between 7,000 and 10,000 steps per day.
Even when you’re short on time, you can find ways to sneak getting more steps into your day. Here are three practical ways to increase your step count:
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- Schedule short walks throughout the day: Even when you’re stressed and feel like you have no time, scheduling 5-10 minute walks throughout the day will add up and get you to your step goal.
- Park further away when you’re running errands: It might seem like it wouldn’t make a difference, but little changes like this can add up throughout the day to help you hit your step goal.
- Combine walking with something else you enjoy: This can serve as a way to kill two birds with one stone. You can increase your physical activity while doing something that’s going to help reduce your stress, like listening to a book or podcast or calling a friend.
Wrapping up: cortisol and abdominal fat
So is cortisol deserving of all the hate it gets these days?
Not quite.
You need cortisol to live, and it’s not going to prevent you from losing fat as long as you’re in a calorie deficit. It can certainly make losing fat more difficult, but like everything else in the fitness industry it’s been overblown.
Everyone is going to go through stressful times, and managing that stress is going to make losing fat easier for you.
If you don’t want to deal with the stress of your own fitness and nutrition, you can apply for coaching and I’ll take all the guesswork out for you. I’ll help you come up with a plan that fits your lifestyle and is designed to get you to your fitness goals.
Thanks for reading and leave any questions below!