Cortisol?

greyfox

New member
Hi,

I've always had problems with building muscles, I'm 180 cm and 70 kg, and skinny-fat. My diet is pretty good and I train properly (started half a year ago). But there's not much difference in my body compering to how I looked 6 month ago (my weight hasn't changed at all - I just have a little bit more muscles, and a little less fat).

And here's my thought:

I'm really nervous and anxious person (coffee and cigarettes included). I read recently about stress reaction in our body and cortisol being released. Do you think my gains could be hindered by my anxiety and thus increased cortisol levels?
 
Firstly coffee should be eliminated altogether , its stimulating and therefore using calories, as it can increase heart rate.I suggest you look at ashwaganda, rhodiola, magnesium to calm you down

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High cortisol often correlates to low testosterone. Making gains with this deadly duo is nearly impossible. Quit living off stimulants. Learn about maximizing free test and reducing aromatase. Your body is just a pile of chemicals. Either they're working for you or against you.
 
jpk said:
High cortisol often correlates to low testosterone. Making gains with this deadly duo is nearly impossible. Quit living off stimulants. Learn about maximizing free test and reducing aromatase. Your body is just a pile of chemicals. Either they're working for you or against you.
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My total testosterone: TST 23.62 nmol/l (ref. val. 9.9-27.8)
 
I'm going to go a different direction and tell you to actually post your training program and diet in the appropriate forums and get some feedback from more experienced lifters. I spent about 12 years thinking I was "training properly" when in fact my training sucked. I made more progress in 2 years than the previous 12 years by simply gaining some weight and learning how to train correctly. Of course it's always a good idea to learn how to deal with stress and anxiety in a constructive way, but don't just assume all your struggles are due to cortisol.
 
greyfox said:
My diet is pretty good
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What does this mean? To be honest unless you can say that your diet is spot on then IMO that is where you should be focusing your attention. Do you measure out your portions so you know how many calories you are taking in?
 
Here is the simple answer. You are not eating enough. If it was cortisol problems and you were eating enough, your weight would still change. You would be gaining fat. If your test was low and you were eating enough, your weight would change. You would be gaining fat. If your not gaining weight, whether muscle or fat, your not eating enough.
 
One other thing. The more we learn about our bodies the more we over complicate things. Eat BIG, train hard, and get plenty of rest. Don't worry about cortisol so much.
 
RoadBlocK said:
Yes it is possible, like corsa said stop the coffee and trying an anti cort might give you some great results also, there are some great anti cort products at Nutra:

http://www.nutraplanet.com/search?view[mfg_id]=&view[category_id]=&query=cortisol


Im sure you can figure out which one I recommend, but I will let you figure it out for yourself which one you would like to try.
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Stop the coffee? Oh man I love coffee. What about just limiting it to 2 or 3 cups a week? I love my coffee, but I don't have it alot, I'll have coffee like 3 times a week usually 1 cup and never over 2 cups.
 
DerickVonD said:
Stop the coffee? Oh man I love coffee. What about just limiting it to 2 or 3 cups a week? I love my coffee, but I don't have it alot, I'll have coffee like 3 times a week usually 1 cup and never over 2 cups.
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Don't worry about it. One cup of coffee will barely increase cortisol; it takes at least 200mg to notice a significant increase. I take it in pill form 200mg, several times a week and it is not hindering my progress. For some people it is not a logically option to withdraw completely from caffeine. Some people need it to cope through their daily activities, work, school, etc. Sure there may be better alternative to CNS stimulants but for some or many those options may not be realistic or within reach. There are negative and positives with everything, it is all about a ratio of benefits to cons and whether you’re willing to take the risk or opportunity that ratio offers.
 
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