If you’ve ever wondered why stubborn belly fat refuses to budge despite healthy eating and regular exercise, two silent saboteurs—sleep and stress—may be to blame.
Disrupted rest and chronic tension don’t just sap energy; they trigger hormonal changes that tell the body to store fat, particularly around the midsection. Experts told Newsweek these hidden forces can alter appetite, slow metabolism and disrupt the body’s natural fat-burning rhythms.
Cortisol and the Stress Response
“While some belly fat is normal, excess visceral fat triggered by long-term cortisol elevation is a sign of an unhealthy stress response,” told Dr. Resham Uttamchandani, a double board-certified physician.
“Cortisol is essential for survival, but when it stays elevated for too long it signals the body to hold on to energy.”
The body once responded to stress by storing fat around the midsection—a survival mechanism that helped keep quick energy available during times of crisis in early human evolution.
Uttamchandani continued: “In modern life, we are not running from predators, so this protective response works against us. Belly fat becomes hormonally active, driving inflammation, cravings, and insulin resistance.
“With chronic stress, cortisol stays high and disrupts multiple systems. It drives cravings for sugary and fatty foods, increases appetite, and encourages the body to store extra calories as belly fat, particularly visceral fat that surrounds the organs.
“Fat cells in the abdomen are especially sensitive to cortisol and hold on to fat more easily. Elevated cortisol can also slow metabolism, reduce muscle, and worsen insulin resistance. This type of visceral fat is especially concerning because it wraps around core organs and raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes.”
Sleep Loss and Weight Gain
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has found significantly higher obesity rates in adults sleeping fewer than seven hours a night. More research shows that short sleep often leads people to eat more—especially foods high in sugar and fat—while eating fewer fruits and vegetables. Overeating saturated fat, refined carbohydrates and sugar can also make it harder to fall and stay asleep.
Chelsie Rohrscheib, a neuroscientist and head of sleep at Wesper, a home sleep diagnostics company, said: “Sleep affects many systems in the body including metabolism, blood sugar regulation, and hormone control.”
She explained that poor sleep disrupts the endocrine system’s regulation of the hormones that control hunger and satiety by reducing the function of leptin—the hormone responsible for the feeling of fullness after eating—and increasing levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone. This, she said, helps explain why people who are sleep-deprived tend to eat more frequently and choose higher-calorie foods than those with good sleep quality.
“Chronically poor sleep also affects the body’s ability to maintain weight even if their diet doesn’t change. A study in young adults found that individuals who were sleep deprived were at higher risk of gaining weight even though their diet was controlled and was the same as the group that slept well. It’s thought this occurs for several reasons,” she said.
She described how sleep restriction slows metabolism and decreases physical activity because of increased sleepiness and fatigue. Sleep loss also shifts calorie use toward carbohydrate oxidation—turning glucose into energy—while suppressing fat oxidation, which favors fat storage.
In addition, poor sleep leads to elevated sympathetic, or “fight or flight,” activity of the nervous system, which increases cortisol release. This, in turn, raises the liver’s production of glucose, leading to decreased insulin sensitivity and reduced glucose tolerance.
Finally, she noted that a healthy gut microbiome plays a crucial role in metabolism and that chronically poor sleep disrupts this delicate balance.
Tips to Reduce Stress and Support Healthy Metabolism
Uttamchandani, who is also a longevity physician at Concierge MD, offered the following practical strategies for lowering cortisol and supporting healthy weight:
- Practice morning mindfulness with a few minutes of breath work or meditation.
- Get natural sunlight within the first hour of waking.
- Delay coffee for about an hour to support a healthy cortisol rhythm.
- Eat protein-rich meals of roughly 30 grams, in the order of vegetables first, healthy fats next and carbohydrates last to minimize blood sugar spikes.
- Strength train regularly to increase muscle and improve glucose metabolism.
- Match exercise to stress levels—choose lighter movement such as walking or yoga on high-stress days—and aim for seven to nine hours of sleep.
- Activate “rest and digest” with calming activities like cooking, meditating, or spending time in nature.
- Foster strong connections and build meaningful relationships to buffer stress and support long-term metabolic health.
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