In healthy adults, doing moderate exercise by itself does not raise cortisol levels much, but when caffeine is consumed before exercise, cortisol levels rise about 40 minutes after the workout in both men and women.

A 40-minute high-intensity workout increases cortisol in the blood for over an hour after exercise in healthy adults, but a 5-minute sprint does not, suggesting that how long you exercise matters more than how hard you push for triggering this hormonal response.

Even after taking 600 mg of caffeine daily for five days, the body still shows a measurable increase in cortisol levels after a subsequent dose, indicating that the stress response to caffeine does not fully disappear with short-term daily use.

After exercising and eating lunch, women tend to have higher cortisol levels than men, and this difference becomes larger if they consumed caffeine beforehand.

Consuming 750 mg of caffeine daily in three doses increases cortisol levels throughout the day when individuals are exposed to mental stress, physical exercise, or eating after exercise, and this increase occurs similarly in both men and women, though the overall stress response size may differ by sex.

When a person engages in aerobic exercise lasting more than 15 minutes, their body shows an increase in cortisol levels, which is a hormone released in response to physical stress.