The two faces of cortisol

Here's a quick summary:

1. Cortisol, despite the bad reputation it has in weight training and bodybuilding, is needed to maintain optimal health and can even burn fat under the right circumstances.
2. Both chronically elevated and continuously suppressed cortisol levels can be destructive. The right balance is key.
3. During exercise, cortisol levels should be high, as cortisol works with your other fat-burning hormones during this phase to increase the release of fat.
4. Cortisol can cause cravings for junk food while simultaneously shutting down the goal-oriented areas of the brain and activating the reward centers of the brain. This is a bad combination for dieters.
5. The three best ways to control cortisol levels are diet, exercise and lifestyle. The three easiest ways to find out if your cortisol levels are balanced are to pay attention to hunger, energy and cravings (HEC, which stands for "Hunger, Energy and Cravings").

How many calories does stress have?

I admit that this is a silly question. You can't eat stress! But this question addresses a crucial point that the entire health and fitness world seems to overlook: it's not calories that control your metabolism, it's your hormones. And when it comes to hormones, the stress hormone cortisol is crucial.

Stress hormones can not only affect how many calories you eat in a day - they can also affect the quality of the calories you eat and have an impact on where those calories are stored or burned. But if all this is true, how does it actually work? And what can you do to influence it?

What exactly is cortisol?

The best way to think of hormones is to think of them as cellular messengers. They provide cells inside the body with information about what is happening outside the body. A good way to think of cortisol is to think of this hormone as a 110 hormone. It sends a signal to emergency services such as the fire department and police, who are the first to be activated in an emergency. Cortisol plays both a protective and an adaptive role. It counteracts inflammation and releases energy from the body's glycogen (sugar) and fat stores to meet the increased energy needs caused by stress. Anything that poses a potential threat to the body will result in a release of cortisol.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

I like to refer to cortisol as the Jekyll & Hyde hormone. As you probably remember, Dr. Jekyll was a kind, upstanding citizen who was plagued by dark thoughts from time to time. These troubled him, which is why he developed a serum that separated him from his dark impulses. However, this only partially worked and split his personality, giving birth to his diabolical alter-ego Mr. Hyde. The story is about the struggle between the good, balanced side of Dr. Jekyll and the evil, extreme side of Mr. Hyde.

This is also a good way to visualize cortisol. Many people think of cortisol as an evil hormone that stores fat and makes their muscles shrink. However, the fact is that this hormone is needed for optimal health and can even burn fat under the right circumstances. There is no question that cortisol can become destructive in certain situations, including when its levels are chronically elevated or when it is persistently suppressed. When cortisol levels are too high or too low, it turns into the devilish Mr. Hyde. When its levels are balanced, it is more like the helpful Dr. Jekyll.

Hormonal sociability

Hormones are like people - they behave differently depending on their environment and the people/hormones that surround them. High cortisol levels in a state of low calorie intake, for example, will have different effects than high cortisol levels in a state of high calorie intake. Something similar applies to exercise - during exercise, high cortisol levels are beneficial, while at other times lower cortisol levels are desirable.

During exercise, cortisol works with your other fat-burning hormones - the catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline) and growth hormones - to increase the release of fat. And what about high cortisol levels when you're not exercising? That's a completely different story. When cortisol has a social gathering with insulin, it has exactly the opposite effect.

Cortisol & insulin

Understanding these hormonal interactions is important. Technically, cortisol is both a fat-storing and a fat-burning hormone. This is because it increases the activity of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) - the body's primary fat-storing hormone. But it also increases the activity of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), which is the body's primary fat-releasing enzyme.

Growth hormone and catecholamines, whose levels are elevated during exercise and fasting, enhance the fat-burning potential of cortisol while suppressing its fat-storing potential. In the non-fasting state, when insulin is present in high amounts, HSL activity is significantly downregulated while LPL activity is increased. In this way, insulin enhances the fat-storing properties of cortisol while blocking its fat-burning activity.

Cortisol and insulin also block each other's actions by reducing the sensitivity of each other's receptors. This means that eating is not the only way to become insulin resistant - stress can also cause insulin resistance. So, contrary to what you are always told, cortisol is not really a belly fat storing hormone. Insulin and cortisol in combination with a high-calorie diet are the real cause of fat storage in the abdominal area.

Cortisol & the thyroid gland

Another dual action of cortisol is the way it interacts with the primary metabolic fat-burning machine - the thyroid gland. Cortisol and the catecholamines sensitize the thyroid receptors. Low cortisol levels can therefore lead to low thyroid function. High cortisol levels, on the other hand, block the normal conversion of inactive thyroid hormones (T4) into active thyroid hormones (T3). Ultimately, cortisol levels should therefore be neither too high nor too low, but just within the right range.

Cortisol & hunger

Two things are needed for fat loss - a calorie deficit and hormonal balance. Cortisol influences hormonal balance, but it also influences calories. Cortisol influences several hormones that are responsible for hunger and cravings. These include leptin, insulin and neuropeptide Y (NPY).

The command and control center of your metabolism is an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. This is the center of your metabolic sensor/thermostat. This area must be able to "hear" the signals sent by peripheral hormones such as leptin and insulin, both of which turn off hunger under normal circumstances. Chronically elevated cortisol levels lead to downregulation of hormone receptors, resulting in hormone resistance.

Imagine walking into a room with a strong odor and covering your nose and mouth - only to realize later that you can no longer smell the stench. This is what cortisol does to your brain. It dampens the mechanisms that perceive satiety. This makes it much less likely that you will feel full and satisfied after a meal and much more likely that you will eat more at the current and future meal. Cortisol & cravings

Cortisol is also involved in cravings. Through mechanisms that are not yet fully understood, cortisol, along with other stress hormones (i.e. the catecholamines), increases cravings for more palatable foods with a higher calorie density. It does this while simultaneously shutting down the goal-oriented centers of the brain and activating the reward centers of the brain. This is a bad combination if you want to stick to your diet. In other words, there's a reason we want the three-story burger at Mc Doof instead of the chicken breast and broccoli already in the fridge when we're stressed. And cortisol could be part of the reason.

How stress makes you fat

If you're a smart fitness enthusiast, then when you think of stress, you think of cortisol. If you really know your stuff, you'll also think of catecholamines. But there's another hormone that's released during stress that even the most advanced experts don't know much about - NPY.

NPY, as mentioned above, is involved in hunger in the brain. But cortisol not only affects NPY levels in the brain, it also affects NPY levels in the body. When you are exposed to acute stress, your body releases catecholamines and cortisol. When you are exposed to chronic stress, your body releases more NPY. When catecholamines and cortisol team up, they help you burn fat. But NPY makes you put on fat - especially when it "hangs out" with cortisol.

When NPY is released in large amounts, it causes immature fat cells to mature into mature fat cells. Chronically elevated cortisol levels make the body more susceptible to this fat-storing action of NPY. In other words, NPY increases the growth of fat cells and cortisol makes it more efficient at doing so. If you're confused now, here's what I just said again:

1. Cortisol combined with catecholamines - as is the case with short-term stress - helps us burn fat.
2. Cortisol in combination with NPY - as is the case with chronic stress - is synonymous with increased fat storage.

Belly fat is a parasite

Cortisol is largely produced in the adrenal cortex, but there is another place where it can be produced - belly fat. The fat that sits deep in the abdomen, also known as visceral fat, contains an enzyme called 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11-HSD). This is an enzyme that converts inactive cortisone into cortisol. This means that belly fat can produce its own cortisol!

And in another twist on the complicated relationship between insulin and cortisol, insulin increases 11-HSD activity, which increases cortisol levels, which then cause increased insulin resistance. In this way, belly fat acts like a parasite, ensuring its growth at the expense of its host's health. I mention this because there are many situations where stubborn belly fat will not go away despite the best efforts at diet and exercise. Sometimes, therefore, an extra hour in bed to lower cortisol levels might be a better strategy than an extra hour on the treadmill.

Cortisol management

There's a lot more that could be said about cortisol, but let's look at some things you can do to control your cortisol levels. The three best ways to control cortisol are diet, exercise and lifestyle. And the three easiest ways to determine if your cortisol levels are in balance are to pay attention to hunger, energy and cravings (HEC for short). If your HEC is under control, then this is a rough indicator that your cortisol is too.

Meal frequency

Remember that cortisol is an alarm hormone. It may surprise you to learn that both eating and not eating can increase cortisol levels. Skipping meals can increase cortisol levels because your brain needs a constant supply of glucose. For some, skipping meals will cause blood sugar fluctuations that result in a cortisol response. When these people skip meals too often, it can result in many of the negative effects mentioned above. However, overeating can also increase cortisol levels. Cortisol, as mentioned earlier, is an alarm hormone that helps regulate the immune response, among other things. For those who are sensitive to certain foods, this effect can be pronounced.

When it comes to meal frequency, don't be too influenced by what the science zombies tell you. Let scientific research refine your approach - not define it. There are many approaches that can work. Eat regularly to keep your HEC under control. For some, this may mean lots of small, frequent meals. For others, it may mean less frequent, larger meals.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach here. Just remember that a healthy, low-calorie meal is neither healthy nor low-calorie if you devour half a cheesecake at the end of the day. And while there's been a lot of controversy lately about meal timing, one potential benefit of a post-workout recovery drink is a quick suppression of post-workout elevated cortisol levels.

Cortisol and training

Short intense training or training with weights and slow and relaxing training are best in terms of cortisol release. In the case of short, intense training sessions, cortisol levels are increased along with levels of catecholamines and growth hormone. This is good for fat burning. In addition, a shorter duration of exercise means less compensatory hunger later on and a lower risk of a catabolic state.

With prolonged moderate and intense exercise, cortisol can easily dominate over growth-promoting hormones and is associated with hunger and cravings after exercise, as well as lower anabolic potential. Is this why sprinters and marathon runners look so different? Probably not completely, but after considering genetic predispositions, it's not a big leap to assume that this mechanism plays a role.

Another great way to lower cortisol levels is to finish your workout with slow relaxing movements like leisurely walking. I'm not sure why it's not used more often, but slow walking is one of the best approaches to lowering cortisol levels. And it has been shown to be even more effective in this regard when done in the great outdoors.

Rest based living

And if you really want to beat cortisol, you should develop a new approach to what I call rest-based living. Find as many ways to do your rest & recovery training sessions. These include naps, sex/physical closeness, massage, fascia roller massage, laughter, time with pets, leisurely walking, sauna visits, hot baths, contrast showers, meditation, etc. All of these activities can be used to lower cortisol levels.

References

1. Schwabe, et al. Simultaneous glucocorticoid and noradrenergic activity disrupts the neural basis of goal-directed action in the human brain. Journal Neuroscience. July 2012;32(30):10146-55.
2. Epel, et al. Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology. January 2001;26(1):37-49.
3. Newman, et al. Daily hassles and eating behavior: the role of cortisol reactivity status. Psychoneuroendocrinology. February 2007;32(2):125-32.
4. Adam, et al. Stress, eating and the reward system. Physiology & Behavior. July 2007;91(4):449-58
5. Kuo, et al. Chronic stress, combined with a high-fat/high-sugar diet, shifts sympathetic signaling toward neuropeptide Y and leads to obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. December 2008;1148:232-237.
6. Tsunetsugu, et al. Physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the atmosphere of the forest) in an old-growth broadleaf forest in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Journal of Physiological Anthropology. March 2007;26(2):135-142.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/two-faces-of-cortisol

By Dr. Jade Teta