Cortisol Overload & Visceral Fat

1 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker explains how chronic activation of the body's stress hormone cortisol—originally meant to spike briefly during acute threats—can become a persistent, maladaptive state in modern life. When cortisol remains elevated, it triggers the enzyme lipoprotein lipase, which acts like a vacuum, pulling circulating fatty acids from the bloodstream and depositing them directly into visceral fat cells. Consequently, even without changes in diet or activity, high stress and high cortisol shift fat storage toward the dangerous visceral region, linking chronic stress to increased abdominal fat.

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Now we need to talk about what happens when this emergency system rarely turns off. This is where things get kind of wild. We just covered this, but evolutionarily cortisol is pumped out in order to recover you from threats. It's supposed to spike up, then go away. But modern life says absolutely not. Cortisol is our best friend or our toxic boyfriend. Anyway, because we like to hang out with it, 2 very interesting things happen that sabotage you. First, cortisol activates an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which acts like a vacuum and pulls circulating fatty acids out of your bloodstream and tucks it directly into your visceral fat cells. So even if you're eating the same and moving the same, when you're high stress, high cortisol, the address where fat gets delivered changes and more goes to visceral fat.