How To Reduce Cortisol Levels Naturally For Weight Loss

So many people believe that they're failing at weight loss when in reality their cortisol is simply unbalanced. Cortisol is not a villain. You need it to wake up. You need it to think clearly and to move through your day. But when cortisol stays elevated or out of rhythm, your metabolism shifts out of fat burning and into fat storage. So today I'm sharing with you how to naturally balance cortisol so your body feels safe enough to lose weight again. Now, if this is one of the first times you've watched one of my videos or listen to one of my episodes, I'm Doct Ashley Lucas. I'm a PhD nutritionist and a registered dietitian. I'm the owner and founder of PhD Weight Loss and Nutrition. Today we have helped over 11, 600 people collectively drop more than 480, 000 pounds. And my goal with this channel is to give you the information you need to create positive change in your own life. So let's dive in and start talking about what balanced cortisol actually means. So balanced cortisol is not low cortisol. It's predictable and it's rhythmic. We want to have higher cortis the morning and this is going to help wake you up, help to give you energy. And then we want to see cortisol lower throughout the day. We want it to be more calmer in the evening so your body can repair and restore and burn fat overnight. When this rhythm is disrupted, weight loss becomes harder. No matter what you're eating, no matter what you're trying. Now, if you feel like your stress patterns are driving your weight struggles and you want some structured guidance to bring your system back into balance, that is exactly what we do at PhD weight loss. During your weekly one on one coaching sessions with our nutritionist, we talk about your lifestyle and your habits, your behaviors, what's going on in your life to help you reduce the stress, to help you get your cortisol levels back into balance so that you can experience 2, 3, 5 pounds of weight loss per week naturally. No medications, no crazy supplements, nothing needed. So if something like this interests you, you should definitely check out PhD weight loss. Just go to my PhD weight loss.com if you are watching this on YouTube on over to the description and click the link for my PhD weight loss to learn more. Now let's dive into the three most common reasons why cortisol becomes unbalanced in the first place. So morning under fueling and late night eating can disrupt cortisol patterns. And eating heavily at Night keeps it elevated when it should be falling. Stress stacking can also cause unbalanced cortisol levels. Now, what I mean by stress stacking is if you have a ton of emails coming in, you're consuming a lot of caffeine, maybe you're driving in crazy traffic traffic, you're multitasking, you have constant stimulation that makes your nervous system feel under threat all day long. It's going to cause ultimately elevated cortisol levels in a consistent pattern. And number three is over exercising or exercising at the wrong time. Now, if you participate in high intensity exercise too frequently or too late in the day, it pushes cortisol past the point of usefulness and into a chronic pattern. When I was a professional ballet dancer, I was on this constant fight to get my body to be extremely lean. Like, I'm much leaner now than I was during my dancing days and I eat significantly more and I consume a ton of healthy fats and consume red meat. During my dancing days, I was a vegetarian. I avoided dietary fat like crazy because I thought if I ate fat, I would get fat. And as a result, my cortisol levels, I'm sure, were extremely high. I would go through an entire day of dancing, you know, eight hours a day on my feet, moving my body, and then I would go take a spin class. Like, I was obviously over exercising and my body body just couldn't release the excess fat because it thought that needed it for survival. So even though I was consuming less calories, all of those calories I consumed were being converted as fat so that my body had this backup mechanism, this backup storage or surplus of calories it could use. When I over exercised after I stopped dancing, I was like, well, I have to fatigue my body and overuse my body some way because I was used to that for 25 years. So I went into cycling and I was this creative great cyclist because I would cycle about 250 miles a week. And the same thing, I was burning a ton of calories and I definitely was not consuming enough to store fat from a surplus of calories. However, I was storing fat because again, my body was just in this survival mode. So if you feel like you just need to exercise more to drop the fat, that's actually not true. You need to be aware if you're over exercising or if you're exercising at the wrong time because that can induce unhealthy rhythms of cortisol and cause you to actually gain and hold on to the stubborn body fat. Now let's talk about how to Naturally balance Cortisol Number one is to build a grounded morning routine Now I've done a great video where I go in depth on how to build a healthy morning routine that will support your weight loss. If you're listening to this on a podcast platform, come on over to YouTube. Just head on over into the description and click the link to that video to learn more. In general, a quick, simple three part routine that balances cortisol quickly is hydration in the morning at least 16 ounces. Put some electrolytes in there, have the water be warm, a protein forward breakfast and then light morning movement. This combination signals safety to your metabolism and will let your body start to burn fat for fuel rather than store it. Number two Use supportive exercise patterns. Strength training, steady state walking, occasional intervals creates metabolic flexibility without overwhelming the nervous system. Again, I've done a video on exercise and why cardio keeps you fat and what you should be doing instead. So head on into the description of this YouTube video and click the link to learn more on that. Number three is practice micro recovery throughout the day. Short pauses, slow breathing Stepping outside for two minutes helps to regulate your sympathetic and parasympathetic balance. A good breathing exercise is breathing in for four counts, holding for two and releasing for six counts. That's going to help to balance your central nervous system and allow the body to get out of fight or flight and start to burn fat for fuel. And number four is to protect your evening wind down time, dim the lights, low stimulation, less screens, less work and a very predictable bedtime routine will help cortisol drop at night, which is essential for fat burning. I like to use blue light blocking glasses. They're beautiful, red cool, super cool. I look really neat in these blue light blocking glasses, but I will put those on when a dusk hits. And I swear the nights that I skip these glasses I have a much harder time falling asleep. So it's definitely something to check out. Now for some common cortisol mistakes that sabotage weight loss. Using caffeine as a meal replacement we definitely don't want to do long fasting windows when you're already stressed is not good. Late night screen exposure also not something that you want to do consistently and then exercising intensely without proper fuel or rest, which I was an expert in. These habits together are going to keep cortisol elevated. They're going to block fat loss even when calories are controlled. Now if you feel like this sounds like you, you're just living in this fight or flight life, then it's going to negatively impact Your gut. Now I'm sharing this with you from personal experience because my MO is go, go, go. Like I am always rushing to get as much done as possible through the day. I've got three kids, I am a wife, I have to companies, PhD, weight loss. We have an amazing team of 60 people. It's just a lot going on all the time. And you know, I was a professional ballet dancer and then into crazy cycling. Like I'm always doing something that is slightly extreme with that and all of the testing that I have done on my own body, I see that as a result of probably this chronically elevated level of cortisol, I've negatively impacted my gut. Dealing with some leaky gut. And when I do this gut testing, I can see the specific bacteria in my gut that is low, that needs to be elevated so that I can have a strong immune system, so that I can burn fat efficiently, so I can maintain my muscle mass. And one of the bacterias in my gut that I'm low in is Akkermansia. Now there's been a ton of research recently on Akkermansia and the impact on gut. If you take antibiotics, it's going to reduce the Akkermansia levels in the gut, which isn't good. It's going to reduce your ability to fight off infections and colds and flu. So I developed a specific supplement to help support the gut for those of us who are maintaining higher levels of stress in our life, for those of us going through a weight loss journey. And this supplement is called GLP1 gut longevity plus. It is is new. I am super excited about it. I hope that you check it out. It includes four key ingredients, actually only four total ingredients. Akkermansia, the specific probiotic that has been shown to help the immune system and help our gut secrete GLP1, which is our natural full hormone. It includes iriomen, which is a citrus bioflavonoid. Helps to increase GLP1 levels and support Akkermansia. And then I included two very potent antioxidants that helps when it comes to reducing stress, increasing longevity. And that is grapeseed extract and resveratrol. So if you want to check out this new supplement, I am loving it. I hope you do too. Go to drashleywellness.com if you are watching this on YouTube. Head on over into the description. Click the link for a special discount. So guys, when cortisol is balanced, your entire physiology shifts. Your cravings change, your hunger becomes more predictable, your sleep improves, and the body becomes willing to release stored fat. You don't need perfection. You need alignment. I hope that today's conversation helped you. Please, if you're watching this on YouTube, drop your thoughts, drop your comments. Tell me where you struggle in your life with stress so we can help you in the comments. Subscribe. Make sure you do that. Remember, you've got to step up to make the change. Lead with your heart, train your mind, and do not negotiate with your body. I'll see you next time.