The Cortisol Connundrum

Our body is a walking pharmaceutical laboratory.

All manner of hormones are being produced, broken down and recycled, on pretty much a second-by-second basis!

If you’re a geek like me and you’ve ever studied human biochemistry, you’ll be familiar with many different hormones and their interactions within the body.

There’s the typical ones everyone has heard of, such as insulin, testosterone, estrogen and adrenaline.

You may of even heard of HCG, progesterone epinephrine too.

But I want to focus on cortisol, and how it may be stopping you from getting the body you want.

You see, there’s 2 reasons why many busy, tired, stressed out guys fail to get into the kind of shape they want.

Honesty
Stress

I’ve stated many times before that you will never make the progression you want in the quickest time frame until you accept that you need to be radically honest with yourself.

The negative effects of your 3-day diet, where things start off so well before you start falling back into old habits and finally end on a binge of overeating is mask by your egos subtext of

“But I ate really well on those 3-days”.

Perhaps you’ve even mastered the art of ‘cheat days’ and your Monday to Friday eating habits have somehow manipulated you into believing that you ‘deserve’ your weekend cheat days (you probably call them refeeds to further convince yourself…)

You’re not fooling anyone, except perhaps yourself. And until you get honest with yourself, you will be forever stuck in the cyclic nightmare of your current state.

But don’t stress about it, because that’s only going to perpetuate the issue.

Stress is that friend that is good in very small doses, the the rest of the time you avoid like a plague.
(We all had one growing up!)

The effect of stress causes the production of cortisol, which at the right time can be beneficial to us. It can increase the breaking down of fat stores into free fatty acids and then fat metabolism through lipolysis (oxidation of those free-fatty acids).

As with other hormones in the body, the problems with cortisol begin when there’s too much for too long, like when your constantly stressed, not getting enough
quality sleep and existing in a stressful environment.

When cortisol levels become elevated over prolonged periods, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (excess insulin in the blood) result, which leads to easier weight gain.

It also leads to the degradation of muscle mass, which slows down your metabolism and sets the stage for various health problems.

So when you combine your ‘refeeds’ with your stressed out life, your belly stores fat like a squirrel does nuts in winter!

Adequate sleep, decompression through things like meditation, protecting your confidence and your personal energy, as well exercise and taking some accountability of your nutrition are the key steps to overcome the negative effects of stress and cortisol and finally develop the physique you want.

These are the kind of strategies we not only promote, but actively follow every single day within Alpha Man Elite, which closed for 2016
recently.

If you missed out, sorry about that, however I have some good news…

These important strategies also make up the essential steps of the ‘Build+’ and ‘Burn-, the 6-week programmes launching in November.

They contain all the guidance you need,with visual demo’s of all the exercises you can do to set you on the right path.

BUT

There will only be 50 places available and they’re already starting to go.

Get on the pre-launch list below to make sure you don’t miss out before its opened to those outside of the inner sanctum.

http://crisbradley.co/buildandburn

Cris ‘No stress’ Bradley