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SvennoJ on 24 February 2025
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shavenferret said:

Here are some articles that i found, the most likely thing to increase cortisol too much is excessive cardio, such as more than 150 miles on your bike every week.  Also, low intensity workouts are good as well, such as yoga or tai chi.  I do the StrongFirst kind of kb workouts and avoiding excessive cortisol is a big thing with them.  Pavel said in his recent video on Huberman lab that excessive cortisol sucks and that the anti-glycolytic training that he has popularized is meant to avoid that.  He doesn't want you to be overly exhausted all the time from a workout.  So made up a bunch of EMOM stuff and has its practicioners to do that for 15 or 20 minutes.  I'm sure you get enough carbs since you do a lot endurance stuff, and carbohydrates help avoid cortisol.  Caffeine can increase it by a large amount as well.  I can't drink coffee any more, so had to ditch that.  I do other stuff, but coffee isn't good for me anymore so i've given that up.  

https://coactivehealth.uk/articles/training-advice/are-you-doing-too-much-cardio/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/health/cortisol-weight-wellness/index.html

Thanks for the links. 7.5 hours consistent sleep at night, I'm so far off that lol. But I'm doing better than when I was working and lived on max 3 hours a night, 5-6 hours with waking up a couple times at night is my avg now.

I quit caffeine for a couple years, now back to one teaspoon of instant coffee with dark hot chocolate in the morning to get me going. Better be awake before getting behind the wheel.

Good to know not to keep pushing for longer distances. Shorter, faster rather than longer. If the weather is nice I take stretching / yoga breaks while on a run, then go fast again, sort of interval training. Yet in winter it's keep going or get too cold.

Anyway I don't do it for weight loss, I'm blessed never to have had issues with weight. I've been 65kg since my 30s (BMI 21). It does fluctuate a bit between summer and winter but not much variance. (Wii balance board tracker was fun to see the cycle)
And since I married I've been eating much better thanks to my wife :)