The Caffeine & Cortisol Connection

• Caffeine increases Cortisol levels in the body.
• This makes you feel more awake!
• Cortisol levels vary throughout the day.
• Levels are naturally higher in the morning, mid-day and the evening (body clock).
• Drinking coffee, or Caffeinating too early in the morning is not a good idea.
• Early AM is when cortisol levels are already high.
• This can cause more stress to your mind and body.
• People generally develop a caffeine tolerance over time.
• Your body’s reaction to caffeine never changes.
• Higher caffeine can wreck your cortisol production.
• This kind of cortisol reactivity created undue cognitive and physical stress.

The best way to manage this relationship between caffeine & cortisol is to work caffeine into your body clock. Use your circadian rhythm and consider the rest of your hormones to perfect this chemical balancing act. It’s something you need to study for yourself because we’re all very different.

Caffeine will interfere with the production of cortisol if we’re not careful. Our bodies will react to an overload of caffeine by producing less cortisol.

Proper timing and a considered amount of caffeine for your activities of the day will increase your cortisol levels.

This will make you feel more awake and ready to go. Be nice to your cortisol levels and they will reward you by releasing a precise amount of glucose for energy.

Coffee has been proven to cause belly fat, because too much caffeine can raise your adrenaline levels which increases cortisol. If you notice that your waistline is starting to get a little too jiggly, change up your caffeine timing or reduce the amount during the day.

Staying in the 200-300mg of natural caffeine per day seems to do the trick for most. For us, this is a couple of Packs of Punch’d a day, and that’s a fairly common sweet spot.

Keep Punching!