Here is a picture of what your cortisol levels should look like through the day. You have a natural peak that gets you up in the morning revved and ready to meet your day. You can see that it starts to really slow down by the time we hit 5 pm. This is our natural time to decompress from our busy life, relax, have a glass of wine or tea before dinner and then a nice nourishing dinner with friends and family.
When ones goes against this natural flow one can raise cortisol levels and one’s body perceives this as danger. Heightened levels of cortisol enact long term fat storage, skew hormones and attack thyroid function . As your thyroid is the master gland of metabolic function, anything that interferes with its function has long term ramifications on on your health and ability to lose weight.
If you find that your body is not responding optimally to your exercise choices you may want to rethink your after work gym visits and try to get to bed earlier and do an earlier morning exercise!
Your friend in health,
Lyn-Genet