Cortisol plays a major role in keeping you fat.

Cortisol keeps us alive by raising blood sugar. Cortisol belongs to the glucocorticoid family—a name for substances that can raise your glucose. This is cortisol’s main job: to increase your glucose and store the excess in the liver. When you are chronically stressed, you make more cortisol. Cortisol plays a major role in fat storage. By raising blood sugar in the body, high cortisol leads to the sugar being stored as fat. To put it simply, excess cortisol is a weight loss blocker. Anything that raises cortisol levels and keeps them elevated will make it very difficult to lose weight. Often when people find it hard to drop the extra pounds despite a diet low in refined sugars and carbs, they may look to increase their workouts. Racking up countless hours on the road or treadmill will likely trigger an undesired hormonal response, which can negatively impact your attempt to lose weight. The longer your workout, even at a moderate intensity, the more cortisol your body is releasing. For some people, chronic cardio raises cortisol too high and leads to an overactive stress response system. It’s like overstepping your fitness boundaries and causing more harm than good. Bottom line: if cortisol is consistently elevated, it could be the reason why you are not losing weight despite a healthy diet and exercise regimen.