# @ciarafoyinc on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUs2ZwtkUOZ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61793365-ciarafoyinc-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d9f2ba0bd0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-02-13T14:05:21.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Ciara Foy // Nutritionist • Hormone Expert • 20 Yrs (@ciarafoyinc) — https://gondola.cc/ciarafoyinc

## Caption

Every diet coach will come for me on this. I’m sharing the science anyway.

What they’re telling you:

“Cut carbs at night! Only eat carbs in the morning. Low carb = fat loss!”

What they’re missing:

High-performing women over 40 don’t have a carb problem. They have a cortisol problem. And cutting carbs at dinner is making it worse.

🧬 The Cortisol-Carb Connection:
Cortisol should drop in the evening. But if you’re burning the candle at both ends, it stays elevated. Complex carbs and fibre at dinner raise serotonin, signalling your nervous system it’s safe to wind down. Restrict them and cortisol stays high when it should be falling.

⚡ The Sleep-Hormone Disaster:
High evening cortisol disrupts sleep. Poor sleep increases ghrelin (hunger hormone) by up to 28% and decreases leptin (satiety hormone) by 18%. You wake up STARVING and exhausted. (University of Chicago, PMC2084401)

🩸 The Morning Glucose Spike:
Sleep disruption causes a 23% increase in morning glucose due to elevated cortisol and growth hormone resistance. The low-carb dinner rule designed to help blood sugar? It’s sabotaging it.

⚡ The Cortisol Cascade:
An under-fuelled dinner keeps cortisol elevated overnight. High evening cortisol = belly fat storage + disrupted circadian rhythms + waking at 2-3am wired.
The domino effect: Low-carb dinner → cortisol stays high → poor sleep → hormonal chaos → next-day cravings → the cycle continues.

After 20 years working with high-performing women running on empty, the first thing I address is sleep. Because without it, nothing else works.

That means a dinner with fibre and complex carbs to stabilize blood sugar, lower cortisol, and set your body up for real recovery. Then the kitchen closes.

Most coaches aren’t 49-year-old women with 20+ years of functional hormone expertise working with high-performing perimenopausal women.

🔥 Comment “MASTERY” for the link to my Free Metabolic Mastery, masterclass, built for women like you! 

👉 SAVE this, your evening routine will never be the same

Drop 🙌 if this finally explains something!

#cortisolbalance #perimenopausalhealth #womenover40 #bloodsugarbalance #hormonehealth

## Stats

- **Views:** 2,252
- **Likes:** 49
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- **Comments:** 35

## Tags

womenover40, hormonehealth, cortisolbalance, perimenopausalhealth, bloodsugarbalance

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