Research
Hormonal
Chronic stress and hypercortisolism inhibit the growth hormone (GH) axis and sex steroid production, which further promotes visceral fat accumulation and insulin resistance.
Long-term stress doesn't just raise cortisol; it also lowers your body's ability to burn fat by suppressing growth hormone and sex hormones like testosterone. This hormonal shift makes it harder to lose visceral fat and easier to gain it, creating a cycle that is difficult to break without addressing the underlying stress.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
During hypercortisolism, glucocorticoids not only suppress GH secretion but also antagonize the actions of growth hormone and sex steroids on fat tissue catabolism or lipolysis. Visceral fat accumulation occurs, which inhibits GH secretion and causes further insulin resistance, participating thus in a vicious cycle with the stress system.
Why this rating
Supported by clinical observations of Cushing's syndrome and animal models of stress.
Source
Hypercortisolism and Obesity
Pamela Peeke et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 1995
DOI 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1995.tb44719.x
narrative_reviewCited 179×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Visceral obesity is strongly associated with the 'metabolic syndrome' (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance), whereas subcutaneous fat is not.Strong
- Chronic psychological or physical stress induces hypercortisolism, which promotes visceral adiposity and metabolic syndrome by inhibiting lipolysis and stimulating lipogenesis via glucocorticoid receptors.Good
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