What Is Cortisol & What Does It Do?
Cortisol is a hormone released by your adrenal glands in response to stress. It’s part of your body’s natural “fight or flight” response. In short bursts, it helps you wake up, think clearly, and respond to challenges. But when cortisol stays elevated for too long, it can start to work against you.
Over time, consistently high cortisol levels can lead to issues like poor sleep, weight gain, fatigue, and a weakened immune system. It can also impact mood, making you feel anxious or irritable. Managing stress through healthy habits like regular movement, balanced meals, and quality sleep can keep cortisol levels in check.
The Link Between Chronic Stress & High Cortisol
When your body perceives stress, whether physical, emotional, or even blood sugar swings, it signals your adrenal glands to release more cortisol. Chronic stress can lead to consistently elevated cortisol levels, which disrupt nearly every major system in the body.
This can affect your digestion, suppress your immune system, disrupt your sleep cycle, and your ability to focus and regulate mood. Over time, high cortisol may contribute to conditions like anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. This is why it is important to identify stressors, both obvious and hidden, and find ways to support your body’s stress response.
How Cortisol Affects Weight & Fat Storage
High cortisol levels promote fat storage, particularly around the midsection. This occurs by increasing insulin resistance, raising blood sugar, slowing metabolism, and disrupting the key hunger hormones like ghrelin and leptin. Even with a balanced diet and regular exercise, elevated cortisol can make weight loss more difficult and may contribute to stubborn weight gain.
The Cortisol-Craving Connection
Cortisol increases appetite and drives cravings for quick energy foods like sugar and refined carbs. This is the body’s natural response to stress, as it prepares for immediate energy needs. At the same time, cortisol disrupts hunger and fullness hormones by increasing ghrelin and lowering leptin, making it harder to feel satisfied after eating.
Research studies show that chronic stress is linked to high calorie intake and weight gain. Stress eating is a real, biologically driven response, not a lack of willpower.
How Cortisol Disrupts Energy & Sleep
Healthy cortisol levels follow a natural rhythm, with levels being high in the morning and low at night. Chronic stress can disrupt this pattern, causing difficulties such as trouble falling or staying asleep, experiencing energy crashes in the afternoon, feeling tired yet restless in the evening, and having trouble waking up in the morning.
The Role of Blood Sugar in Cortisol Spikes
Skipping meals, undereating, or eating high-sugar meals can all cause blood sugar levels to crash. When this happens, your body perceives it as a stressor and releases cortisol to raise blood sugar back to a safe level.
When you eat carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose, which enters the bloodstream and provides energy to your cells. Balanced meals that include protein, healthy fats, and fiber help slow the release of glucose into the blood, preventing sharp spikes and drops. Maintaining steady blood sugar through consistent, balanced meals is essential for keeping blood sugar and cortisol levels stable.
Signs of Cortisol Imbalance
Signs of a cortisol imbalance may include stubborn belly fat, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, low energy in the afternoon, feelings of anxiety or being constantly on edge, trouble concentrating or memory issues, strong cravings for sugar and salt, irregular menstrual cycles, and reduced libido.
How to Lower Cortisol Naturally
- Eat balanced meals with protein, healthy fat, and fiber
- Avoid skipping meals
- Incorporate daily movement, especially walking or gentle strength training
- Get sunlight in the morning and reduce blue light exposure at night
- Prioritize sleep hygiene
- Practice stress-reducing habits like deep breathing, journaling, or meditation
Supplements That May Help Regulate Cortisol
If you’re looking to support your body’s natural stress response, certain evidence-based supplements may help regulate cortisol. It’s always best to consult with a healthcare practitioner, but options like magnesium, ashwagandha, rhodiola, phosphatidylserine, and omega-3s have shown potential benefits. These nutrients may promote more balanced energy levels, improved sleep, and overall resilience to stress.
When to Test Your Cortisol Levels
If you’re experiencing ongoing symptoms like fatigue, trouble sleeping, mood changes, or feeling wired but tired, it may be time to look deeper. Functional lab tests, such as a 4-point salivary cortisol test or the DUTCH test, can give a more complete picture of your cortisol rhythm throughout the day. These insights help practitioners create a more personalized and effective approach to restoring balance and supporting your overall well-being.
How One Nutrition Group Supports Clients with Cortisol Imbalance
At One Nutrition Group, we assess stress, nutrition, sleep, and metabolic factors holistically. Using labs, food, and lifestyle strategies, we help clients rebalance their cortisol and restore energy, without unrealistic, extreme measures.
Final Thoughts
If you feel like your body is working against you, it might be a cortisol imbalance. Healing doesn’t start with restriction. It starts with understanding what your body needs and giving it consistent support.