Sleep Your Way To Weight Loss
I am going to let you in on a little secret... sleep is a critical component to weight loss! Most people know that food and movement are key pieces to the weight loss puzzle, and are covered in every single diet program out there. However, our sleep could be the missing puzzle piece to real weight loss results.
Our sleeping habits impact our appetite, performance, energy levels, caloric intake, muscle mass, metabolism, insulin sensitivity, stress levels and even fat storage. All of these things can make a difference in your bodys ability to lose weight & keep it off.
It is recommended that adults gets 7-9 hours of sleep per night, but 1 in 3 adults are sleep deprived. Sleeping less that 6-7 hours per night can have serious health implications, interfere with the bodys ability to regulate hormones and can send the metabolism into a low functioning spiral. This downward spiral is what throws off every component of weight loss.
Sleep & Hormones
Sleep is an important part of our day where our body can regulate hormones. This includes the hormones that control your appetite and hunger (leptin & grehlin). These hormones are at work to help your body control food intake. Lack of sleep decreases leptin and increases grehlin.
So what does that mean for you? Leptin is released at night when you get adequate amounts of sleep, with lack of sleep leptin signaling becomes impaired. Leptin's main job is to signal to the brain when you have consumed adequate food (after a meal). When signaling is impaired, we continue to have an appetite because the brain has not got the message from Leptin that the body has had enough food.
Grehlin is responsible for signaling hunger. Lack of sleep increases the release of grehlin in our system. An over abundance of grehlin in the body leads to increased appetite, increased cravings, extra calories and weight gain. Learn more about the connection between these hormones and their impact on our metabolism HERE.
Studies show that both of these appetite regulating hormones can change by as much as 15% when you do not get enough sleep.
In another study on the impact of sleep on food cravings, it was found that sleep deprivation caused participants to turn to higher calories snacks throughout the day. Participants ended up eating 600 more calories day when they were not getting enough sleep, compared to the days they were getting 7-9 hours of sleep.
Getting enough sleep can help manage your cravings, calorie intake & make better choices.
Sleep & Body Shape
During weight loss it's important to maintain and build muscle mass in the body. Increased muscle mass not only helps your body burn more calories at rest , but it also is how the appearance of the body changes. Weight loss without muscle mass increase means loose skin, and less toned and in shape.
Sleep is when the body builds and repairs muscle tissue. Lack of sleep means our bodies are getting less time to perform this maintenance. Lack of sleep can even result in the loss of muscle mass!
The obvious goal of weight loss is to lose fat to uncover a smaller, slender, toned body. We are working hard all day everyday to exercise and to eat the right things so that we can realize this goal as soon as possible. What alot of us do not realize is that our sleep habits can make or break all of this effort.
By not getting enough sleep, the bodies levels of insulin and cortisol will rise. Since these two hormones play a significant role in how the body stores fat and burns fat, the goal is to have them in balance as much as possible. When we don't get enough sleep we are putting ourselves at risk for increasing our body fat, especially around the abdominal area. Learn more about how the stress hormone cortisol impacts the bodys ability to burn fat HERE.
Ok, so you have learned alot about how lack of sleep can sabotage your weight loss efforts. We understand that we need to be getting adequate sleep to help our bodys heal, restore and transform. If you are serious about weight loss, sleep must be made a priority in your life.
Build your day around your sleep schedule. If you know you have an early meeting tomorrow, calculate backwards 7-9 hours, plus the time you need to get ready for your day and out the door, and that will be the time you should be going to sleep.
So often we sacrifice our sleep for staying out later, or watching just one more episode of our favorite show. When we choose these things over giving ourself adequate sleep, we are choosing to not take care of ourselves. I understand life happens and not every night is going to be a perfect 7-9 hours of sleep, but getting adequate sleep is the #1 thing you can be doing for physical health and your weight loss efforts right now.
If you can even just try to get 1 more hour of sleep per night, you are dramatically improving your health & wellbeing.
Do you know what the #1 thing my clients say when we discuss sleep? HOW DO I IMPROVE MY SLEEP? Stayed tuned for next week when I share all the juicy details on how to improve sleep & get MORE sleep!
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Ready to learn more about how getting enough sleep can be your missing puzzle piece to weight loss results? I teach women how to actually lose weight & ditch yoyo diets so they can get real, sustainable results & find freedom from food. You can be one of them! Learn how to actually lose weight & ditch yoyo diets by clicking here!
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0215-enough-sleep.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3259
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC535701/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5749041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9415946
Disclaimer:
The information in this presentation is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional, and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Milan Lekay, milanlekay.com 2019
