FitBtch mythbusters: Cortisol and belly fat edition

As any midlife slag with a vague interest in health and wellness knows, cortisol (the hormone that manages stress, inflammation, blood sugar and your metabolism) causes belly fat. Or does it?! It's a statement that gets thrown around in women's health articles and social media so much it's started to sound like fact. You're bloody stressed (as a perimenopausal woman juggling life, work, probably kids and a world that feels like it's going down the pooper) and you've got a jigglier gunt than you used to have. Correlation is causation right? Er... no.

Here’s the truth: high stress doesn’t just beam fat directly onto your waistline. That’s not how the body works.

Unfortunstely, pushing down on the gunt doesn't help reduce it, either.

Cortisol is not some relentless belly-fat-producing hormone. But… cortisol does affect your body in ways that can indirectly lead to eating more, moving less, and – yep – ending up in a calorie surplus.

And a calorie surplus (eating/drinking more energy than you use) is what causes fat gain. Yes, it's as simple that.

Let's break this down a little further for the geeks in the back (which includes us, obv):

What is cortisol?

Cortisol is your stress hormone, produced by your adrenal glands. It’s a very necessary little chemical. It helps you wake up in the morning, it rises when you exercise and, (its most famous function) it keeps you alert when you need to get shit done (or when you need to get the feck out of somewhere dodgy).

Your cortisol should naturally rise and fall across the day. The issue really isn’t cortisol itself. The issue comes when your level of it is constantly elevated and your body never really gets a break.

So what can we do? Read on.

What keeps cortisol chronically high?

You don't need us to state the bleedin' obvious:

• Poor sleep (hello scrolling at bedtime).

• Living on caffeine and not eating properly.

• Over-doing exercise without proper recovery.

• A busy life with loads of plates spinning and very little downtime.

• Midlife hormones changing the game – menopause makes us more sensitive, so cortisol can spike more easily.

None of these on their own will make your waistline expand. But together, they create the perfect storm for bone-crushing fatigue, poor recovery, crappy food choices and just generally less movement. You're starting to get it now!

How cortisol impacts behaviour

When you’re chronically stressed, a few things start to happen. Your appetite hormones (aka ghrelin and leptin) get all out of whack. This makes you crave quick energy foods, sugary baked goods, crisps, all your usual ultra-processed comfort food.

Poor sleep makes it even harder to regulate appetite and energy. You give in to said cravings. You’re exhausted, so working out is literally at the bottom of the to-do list. All your good intentions go to pot.

In simple terms, stressed out slags tend to eat more and move less, and that’s the calorie surplus that leads to fat gain. It wasn't the cortisol that added the jiggle to your middle. But your behaviour in the face of high stress did.

Why is it easier to gain belly fat in midlife?

Here’s the real kick (in the gunt). When we’re younger, if we gain a bit of fat, it tends on most body types and shapes to sit on our hips, thighs and arse. In midlife and peri/menopause, as oestrogen declines, fat distribution changes. The body is more likely to store extra energy around the middle, especially as visceral fat (fat around the internal organs).

Add higher stress and higher cortisol into the mix, plus your ability to regulate insulin, aka the hormone that deals with blood sugar (and more specifically, that clears out sugars that aren't being burned during high energy fight-or-flight situations) can also change. Combine that with the inevitable hormonal shifts, and you’ve got the midlife belly pooch that a lot of women suddenly notice for the first time.

So what can we do?

The answer isn’t to magically 'get rid' of cortisol (you do actually need it!) but to manage the lifestyle factors that push it from normal levels to chronically high:

• Prioritise consistent, decent sleep. Put the phone down babes. Get an app that blocks the doom-scrolling sites if you need to (and believe us, we get it)!

  
  

• Eat properly. That means enough (guess what?) protein, fibre and generally carb-balanced meals. *cough* oh hey FitBtch Nutrition Hub *cough*

  
  

• MOVE. Exercise consistently but don’t hammer your body with loads of cardio or too much anything. Lift things, stretch and condition. Strength train on the regular and recover from it before the next session.

  
  

• Do your very best to build habits and lifestyle changes that actually work to manage your stress levels. Find what brings you calm and peace. If that's exercise – amazing! You know where to find us! Otherwise, getting in nature, crafts, seeing your friends more. Stop pushing yourself to the bottom of the priority list.

Because at the end of the day, belly fat isn’t about some sinister hormone that's dead set on sabotaging you. It’s about energy balance, lifestyle and how your body changes during midlife.

And here’s the good news: you can absolutely shift it. It just takes the right approach, not another cortisol-fearmongering headline.

Stay tuned for the next blog in the series.