Cortisol can enhance our urge for food by way of elevated manufacturing of ghrelin3, our “starvation hormone.” If we’re expending the identical quantity of power as standard, however taking in additional meals as a result of a rise in starvation alerts, it may well negatively affect weight reduction efforts.
We could not discover this variation since we’re consuming to the identical degree of “fullness” that we usually do, with out realizing we’re consuming a bit greater than standard.
Cortisol additionally stimulates the discharge of Neuropeptide Y4, a neurotransmitter that promotes cravings for meals greater in energy, sugar, refined carbohydrates, and fats. The consumption of carbs stimulates the discharge of serotonin5, considered one of our “completely happy hormones”—making them additional interesting during times of stress and anxiousness.
Continued publicity to excessive cortisol ranges can affect the operate of the thyroid gland6, which performs a vital position in regulating metabolism. Chronically elevated cortisol can intervene with the conversion of inactive thyroid hormone (T4) into its lively type (T3), resulting in a lower in metabolic price.