126. How Chronic Stress & High Cortisol Impacts Weight (And What Actually Helps)

You've probably seen it all over Instagram: "comment cortisol" and buy a supplement that promises to melt stress belly overnight.

In this episode, registered dietitian and lactation counselor Brooke Miller separates fact from fad, explaining exactly how chronic stress and elevated cortisol affect fat storage, blood sugar, muscle mass, and hunger hormones and why busy moms are especially vulnerable.

She breaks down the difference between normal, healthy cortisol fluctuation and the chronic stress response that actually impacts your body composition, plus gives practical, no-extreme-diet strategies (and the supplements that are genuinely backed by research) to help you support your stress response without falling for the next miracle pill.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• What chronically high cortisol actually does to fat storage (and why it tends to target visceral/belly fat)
• How cortisol and blood sugar create a feedback loop that drives weight gain
• Why crash diets and extreme restriction can raise cortisol and backfire on weight loss
• The sneaky way poor sleep disrupts leptin and ghrelin, your hunger and fullness hormones
• Why emotional eating isn't a willpower problem
• 4 supplements with real research behind them for cortisol support (and who should avoid one of them)
• Simple, free nervous system regulation techniques that make every other habit work better
• Why "fixing" cortisol starts with sleep, blood sugar, and movement not a supplement

Cortisol is the downstream of a lot of things, our sleep, our blood sugar, our exercise, how we cope with stress. No single pill or supplement will fix these root cause things. It’s important to look at everything in your lifestyle that can be impacting your cortisol levels.

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