Let us start by talking about the relationship between high cortisol and high blood sugar. A lot of people, when they start a weight loss journey, focus on external or secondary things, they try to fix their eating or exercise, while neglecting or giving no attention at all to far more important things, like improving sleep quality or managing stress well.
In this article we talk about one of the biggest causes of high blood sugar, weight gain, and blocked weight loss, high cortisol resulting from high stress in life. One of the pieces of advice we give most often, to the point where it feels like we are talking to a wall because so many people ignore it, is: "please manage your stress well and try to reduce it in your life", because when your cortisol rises, your blood sugar rises with it, and that makes weight loss a difficult process.
How Does High Cortisol Lead to High Blood Sugar?
The first thing worth knowing is that cortisol is a core hormone known as the "stress hormone", released by the adrenal glands. Among its most important functions in the body: responding to stress, controlling sugar levels, supporting the immune system, regulating blood pressure, and regulating metabolism.
Now let us go back to its first function, responding to stress. When the body is under high pressure, such as work stress like deadlines, difficult managers or colleagues, draining relationships, or mentally or physically demanding situations, all of this makes the body release large amounts of cortisol so it can deal with the stress.
When cortisol rises in the body, blood sugar rises directly by stimulating the liver to produce glucose, and the cells' ability to absorb it drops (meaning insulin resistance gets worse). This leaves the body's cells unable to use the sugar available in the blood, so it builds up and causes a sustained rise.
High cortisol also redistributes and stores fat, especially around the belly (we always tell our members whose fat tends to concentrate around the belly: invest in managing your stress, because that kind of belly is a stress belly).
The more ongoing and intense the stress in life, the bigger this problem becomes, and it turns, as they say, chronic.
The Bottom Line
Now you have seen how strong and direct the relationship between stress and high blood sugar is, and when blood sugar and fat storage get this out of balance, weight loss naturally becomes difficult.