As we all know by now, physical activity of any type is good for you, right? It helps improve mood, cardiovascular health, and longevity amongst a myriad of other benefits. In recent years, high impact exercise has been in the spotlight for it’s metabolism revving, fat burning effects.
Exercise is also known to have an effect on several different hormones, which are what help to control a plethora of functions within our bodies. Engaging in physical activity boosts the production of growth hormone, which is crucial for maintaining a healthy body composition and enhancing insulin sensitivity. It also stimulates the release of dopamine and serotonin, renowned for their mood-enhancing properties. Exercise increases estrogen levels, a reproductive hormone, the decline of which is linked to menopause symptoms, and testosterone which is vital for bone health and libido. Various studies have shown that consistent exercise can alleviate menstrual discomfort, partially due to the rise in progesterone, known for its anti-inflammatory properties.
But there’s a bit of a caveat as many performance athletes know. You can, in fact, have too much of a good thing, especially with high impact exercise. This can come at the cost of increased stress hormone levels, the biggest of which is cortisol.
Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone which has multiple effects on our bodies. For example:
In short, small bursts, Cortisol actually helps our bodies. However, if our levels are chronically elevated, it can lead to low-grade systemic inflammation and thwart our efforts at weight loss. But how does exercise play into this?
First, let’s define what high intensity, high impact workouts are. These are movements that involve fast, pounding movements like running, jumping rope, gymnastics, tennis, plyometrics, etc. They stress not only your joints but your whole body as well. If both feet are off the ground at one time, it’s a high impact exercise
High intensity, on the other hand, can be low-impact but still get your heart rate into the 80-95% max heart rate category. This is usually done in short bursts with a recovery period where your heart rate decreases to 40-50% of your max heart rate.
General speaking, exercise actually helps to lower cortisol levels. However this varies based on frequency, type, and duration. For example, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) can increase cortisol levels temporarily and then bring it below baseline after about two-hours post-workout. Cortisol level baselines also decreased gradually with long-term endurance exercise (40 minutes or longer with a 75% max heart rate). The same occurs with resistance training, but more slowly.
What is being found with high intensity/high impact exercise is that while those cortisol levels increase initially, they also come down more slowly than with some other exercises. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s when it’s compounded by several factors, it can become a problem.
As mentioned above, cortisol helps to regulate our sleep/wake cycle with levels increasing in the morning, naturally signaling our bodies that it’s time to wake up. That’s why doing high impact workouts early in the morning, when our levels are at their highest can increase them even further.
Being in a fasted state, such as we usually are in the morning, is already considered a stressor on the body, so doing a high impact workout in this state can cause cortisol levels to increase even further.
Like we mentioned, this isn’t such a big deal when it happens from time to time because our bodies can handle acute (short term) stress relatively well. It’s when this pattern of working out when cortisol levels are at their highest in the morning (between 6-8am) and doing so before breakfast as part of your daily schedule that we start to see some negative effects.
So how does a hormone that used to give us a burst of energy and focus to help evade predators actually come to counteract our weight loss efforts? I again want to focus on the fact that this isn’t the case when it’s short term, but rather when our cortisol levels are chronically elevated.
Cortisol is notorious for causing fat retention around our midsection as a readily available energy source for our organs during times of stress. If our bodies are constantly in a stressed state, this can contribute to a vicious and frustrating cycle.
Since cortisol encourages our liver to release glucose in preparation for our muscles’ needs, chronically elevated levels can potentially lead to insulin resistance and higher blood sugar. This is turn can contribute to weight gain.
Cortisol can actually increase our hunger by impacting a hormone that impacts our appetite, called Grehlin. Not only do we end up more hungry than usual, but due to cortisol’s influence on the hormone Neuropeptide Y, we specifically crave foods that are higher in calories, fat, carbs, and refined sugar. So even if we’re exercising intensely, what that could potentially cause us to eat afterwards may result in a lack of progress.
These means that while chronically high cortisol may not necessarily make you gain weight, it could hinder weight loss. The frustration of working out consistently and seeing little progress can itself turn into a downward spiral that ends up resulting in more stress, more extreme methods, and ultimately losing motivation to keep going.
Cortisol definitely has it’s benefits when it’s released in ways that our bodies can best utilize it. However, there are factors outside of frequent, long, high impact workouts that can cause it to be chronically elevated as well. Let’s take a look at some ideas we can utilize to help balance out our levels.
There’s a reason why they say that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eating breakfast within an hour of waking is shown to reduce morning cortisol levels because our bodies learn that hunger will be one less stressor it has to contend with. Also – this doesn’t mean that you should inhale a package of Poptarts or a doughnut just to get something in your stomach. It should be a well balanced, non-processed meal with (ideally) around 30 grams of protein.
Certain minerals like potassium, magnesium and zinc are also known to help reduce stress levels. Eating a variety of foods like shellfish, pumpkin seeds, lean beef, spinach, salmon, almonds, and sweet potatoes (to name a few) are a great way to make sure that you’re getting enough of those nutrients.
To really allow our bodies time to recuperate and restore itself, we should be aiming for 7-9 hours per night. This means setting a schedule and sticking to it. Work backwards from when you need to get up so that you know when a good bedtime should be. Most phones even give you the ability to get a wind down reminder prior to bedtime so that you know when to move into your night time routine. Ideally this would be about an hour before bed to read, stretch, meditate, take a bath, etc. Sleep experts recommend eliminating screens 1-2 hours before bed due to the adverse effects blue light has on our circadian rhythms.
Both of these can cause a rise in cortisol levels, so besides limiting alcohol for other health reasons, watching your caffeine intake can help as well. If you’re like most of us and enjoy your morning tea and/or coffee, it’s best to avoid drinking it on an empty stomach. Try to drink it either with breakfast, or ideally, several hours after waking up and try to eliminate after caffeine sources in the afternoon.
Sometimes when we’re trying to lose weight, it’s easy to fall into eating patterns that are really restrictive, especially with calories and carbs. However, this can actually do more harm than good and result in placing additional stressors on our bodies
There’s so much to be said about managing our stress responses to situations through skills like mindfulness and meditation. There are a plethora of studies that have proven the benefits of these practices in terms of stress.
High intensity and high impact exercise can be great for your health, but we want them to be part of a balanced plan that prevents your body from being constantly in a state of high stress. Using the above tips can help you keep your cortisol levels in check so that it benefits you instead of causing more difficulty.
If you aren’t sure where to start with stress management, creating a balanced exercise plan, or eating healthfully, that’s okay! Using someone like a health coach can help you to find a plan that will work best for you. If you’re looking to find a health coach to help with this, feel free to reach out or schedule a free consult
