There’s an old adage that goes well with weight-loss goals: If at first you don’t succeed try again. If you still don’t see a major change, trace back your sleep. Are you one of those individuals who try really hard whether it is balanced diet with more focus on protein and vegetables, exercise regularly and know well the healthy food choices, maintain it and yet fail to see the desired results showing up?
Perhaps, sleep, which is just as important, is something you are missing out on. How sleep makes you lose weight? Read on to know more.
- It stops you from snacking late.
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The longer you are awake, higher are the chances of you consuming more calories and gaining weight. Getting too little sleep also dramatically decreases the sensitivity of your insulin receptors, which will raise your insulin levels. This is a surefire way to gain weight, as the insulin will seriously impair your body’s ability to burn and digest fat. Getting proper sleep is therefore crucial for weight loss.
Researchers have suggested that faulty diet and late night sugar cravings stem from the fact that your brain is fueled by glucose (blood sugar). Therefore, when lack of sleep occurs, and your brain is unable to properly respond to insulin (which drives glucose into brain cells) your brain becomes desperate for carbohydrates to keep going. If you’re chronically sleep deprived, consistently giving in to these sugar cravings will virtually guarantee that you’ll gain weight.
- Poor sleep pattern changes your adipose tissues (fat cells)
When the body is sleep deprived, it suffers from what is called, “metabolic grogginess”. One late night moves on to another and before you know it, it’s already a habit. You might feel that perhaps drinking more coffee and working away late into the night might be okay for a few days but the body’s hormones that control the fat cells do not feel the same, unfortunately. And within days, your body’s ability to use insulin gets disrupted. When your insulin is functioning well, it helps clear away the fatty acids in your blood stream and store them in adipose tissues. However, when insulin functioning is disturbed, you tend to become more insulin resistant and end up with too much fatty acid in the blood stream that eventually gets stored in the wrong tissues like liver or heart.
- Sleeping well helps you lose weight more
Not only do you feel really good after a good night’s sleep, but your body also burns calories even when you have not been working out. A study quoted in the American Journal of Nutrition states, normal sleeper’s REE (resting energy expenditure) was 5% more than their counterparts. The study also saw them burn 20% more calories post a meal as compared to those who were sleep deprived.
- Sleep and Exercise
Two of the most important things you need to be careful about on a weight loss program is your sleep and your overall exercise performance. These two are no doubt interrelated and when you do not get enough amount of sleep, you will soon find yourself under-performing when it comes to exercises. Not only that, but since sleep time is generally also used by the body to rest and recover and build, when messed up, will eventually start showing on your results as well.
Also Read: 3 Ways Working the Night Shift Affects Your Fitness Level
To conclude, considering all the links to obesity, diabetes, high bp, heart risks and altered brain functioning- the need for sleep is far more than seeing results from your diet and exercise, while all three of them in the right ratio work wonders as a combo.
So make sure, you get 7-8 hours of sleep every night, going by the thumb rule. Not only are you going to feel better, battle the food cravings but also will see great weight loss results and also set better long term health benefits.
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Last modified: June 23, 2017
