Anonymous wrote:Cortisol did not make you fat. Your fork did. Put it down and move more.

WRONG.

Elevated cortisol most definitely makes you fat - it drives cravings that are impossible to overcome by willpower alone.

I spent my 40s in a toxically high stress job (prosecutor) working very long hours and suffering chronic insomnia from perimenopause, so both stress and insomnia were driving my elevated cortisol and I packed on dozens of pounds in a short period of time - and no, I was not binge eating.

Hormones are HUGE when it comes to weight gain.

OP, I stepped on the scale this morning and was so happy I came here to post a thread about it but yours was a great place to fit my success story.

I have now lost 50 lbs from my all time high weight. I have a long way to go still, but there is no question my body is healing and that is what is required before your body can start releasing weight.

What I did:

Got on HRT to solve the chronic insomnia.

Managed my stress and cultivated a much healthier work/life balance.

Healed my gut and ended my food cravings by adopting a high fiber, whole foods, clean 90% processed food free diet. I eat very clean 6 days/week and one day allow myself to indulge - Chinese take out, Thai take out, pizza.

I get at least the RDA of fiber every day, some days more. I address cravings for sweets (which are much minimized since I ditched most all sugar and added sugar processed foods) with very dark chocolate (high fiber, antioxidants) or figs or dates, or fruits which are fantastically sweet once you've ditched all the super sugary processed foods and treats.

50 POUNDS GONE, at 53! A year from now it will be 100 more and then I'll be in maintenance mode.

I also walk daily and do weight lifting but nothing intense - no intense cardio, which actually drives hunger/cravings and excess calorie intake. Walking is terrific for weight loss, and lifting weights to get back that muscle mass that has atrophied since you turned 30 is the key - because muscle burns fat while you're sitting and sleeping.

You can do this OP.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, of course you can.

Except for a tiny percentage of people who actually have a legitimate disease, "cortisol," "metabolism," "genetics," are all excuses people make because they can't or won't follow CICO. Yes, some of these factors can actually affect the rate your body burns calories, but that is completely irrelevant to weight loss, because all that means is you have to readjust your CICO calculation.

Literally all you have to do is eat fewer calories than you burn. It doesn't matter where on your body the fat is, it doesn't matter how you gained it. If you eat fewer calories than you burn for a sustained period of time you will lose the fat eventually. It's basic thermodynamics. Your body is not a exception to the laws of physics. If you "are eating fewer calories than I burn and still aren't losing weight," there's not some magic situation happening, you're calculating CI or CO wrong and need to eat less or exercise more.

I love posts that authoritatively say things like "it's simple except for when it isn't but then it is still simple".

You are a perfect example of the Dunning-Krueger effect.

Anonymous wrote:I’m always stressed, intense. No matter how much I try not to be stressed, I meditate, do yoga, breathing, therapy, that’s who I am. Should I even bother to do sit-ups and watch what I eat?

What worked for me: therapy and the Calm app (specifically I do the Daily Calm and the Daily Trip) and about every 10 days a half a generic Xanex on the bad days. It took about six months for the therapy to work and for me to generate different reactions. The best phrase I learned was “that does not belong to me” and I learned I could participate in only the things that I wanted and drop the things I thought I should do. I dropped quite a bit of volunteering. I dropped out of some online groups and do very little social media. I also changed to a pescatarian/vegetarian diet but no soy (it causes inflammation in me). I have always exercised and still do - averaging about 10k steps a day and 300 minutes a week at my target heart rate.

For weight loss, I lowered my caloric intact by about 800 calories a day. I lost for about 6 months and now I am working on maintaining that and not worrying that I did not make it to my goal. I am slowly adding back some calories and so far I have been able to maintain the weight loss since the beginning on June.

Anonymous wrote:I think the prior posters are only part right. They don’t account for some people that store far weirdly. I am so thin on top you can see my ribs and my collarbones stick out. But i have a pot of jelly on top of where my bladder and uterus sits (well below my waist). I’m sure i could lose it but i would need to be basically abotexiv to lose it and all the rest of my bones would jut out. But dieting and exercise do help some. I had two c sections so that may be part of the problem — my lower abdominals are just shot to hell.

I am one of the prior posters, and I have that body shape. My mother and her sisters are even worse. It doesn't change the fact that to lose the belly, people still need to eat less, but there is, possibly, a gut issue that also needs to be resolved. We have autoimmune diseases in the family, and my mother and daughter have intestinal problems and food intolerances. Apart from the obvious, which is to have a really strong core (which they don't have!), I believe there is a link between autoimmune inflammation - and bloating in the belly area) - and intolerances to certain foods.

So perhaps look into that. But remember that avoiding certain trigger foods will only reduce your belly in addition to eating less overall.

Cortisol didn't, but it helps to hold on to it.

Cut out caffeine and your stress level will plummet along with your cortisol.

Anonymous wrote:Cortisol did not make you fat. Your fork did. Put it down and move more.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Cortisol did not make you fat. Your fork did. Put it down and move more.

This

Anonymous wrote:I think the prior posters are only part right. They don’t account for some people that store far weirdly. I am so thin on top you can see my ribs and my collarbones stick out. But i have a pot of jelly on top of where my bladder and uterus sits (well below my waist). I’m sure i could lose it but i would need to be basically abotexiv to lose it and all the rest of my bones would jut out. But dieting and exercise do help some. I had two c sections so that may be part of the problem — my lower abdominals are just shot to hell.

The only difference where you store fat makes is what order it comes off when you lose it. Bodyfat generally comes off equally all over your body, so if you have a lot stored in one place it will take longer to go away, but if you get yourself down to a low bodyfat percentage, it will disappear. If it didn't, you'd see photos of Rwandans or Holocaust survivors with their "stubborn belly fat," yet you certainly don't, because that's not how it works.

I did on Ozempic. Nothing else helped. A1 c numbers down, cholesterol down, thyroid back to normal.

I think the prior posters are only part right. They don’t account for some people that store far weirdly. I am so thin on top you can see my ribs and my collarbones stick out. But i have a pot of jelly on top of where my bladder and uterus sits (well below my waist). I’m sure i could lose it but i would need to be basically abotexiv to lose it and all the rest of my bones would jut out. But dieting and exercise do help some. I had two c sections so that may be part of the problem — my lower abdominals are just shot to hell.

Yes, of course you can.

Except for a tiny percentage of people who actually have a legitimate disease, "cortisol," "metabolism," "genetics," are all excuses people make because they can't or won't follow CICO. Yes, some of these factors can actually affect the rate your body burns calories, but that is completely irrelevant to weight loss, because all that means is you have to readjust your CICO calculation.

Literally all you have to do is eat fewer calories than you burn. It doesn't matter where on your body the fat is, it doesn't matter how you gained it. If you eat fewer calories than you burn for a sustained period of time you will lose the fat eventually. It's basic thermodynamics. Your body is not a exception to the laws of physics. If you "are eating fewer calories than I burn and still aren't losing weight," there's not some magic situation happening, you're calculating CI or CO wrong and need to eat less or exercise more.

You really need to cut back on calories, and in order to do that without collapsing in a hangry heap, you need to change your diet: eat less refined grains, sugars, and fats, and more lean protein and whole grains. That will hold you longer on fewer calories.

Cortisol did not make you fat. Your fork did. Put it down and move more.

I’m always stressed, intense. No matter how much I try not to be stressed, I meditate, do yoga, breathing, therapy, that’s who I am. Should I even bother to do sit-ups and watch what I eat?