Are You Getting Enough? Why Sleep Is Important for Weight Loss

Weight Loss

You may think that performing enough exercise and eating healthy is all you need to do to lose weight, but there are other lifestyle factors which will influence the success of your weight loss journey. An important factor is how  many hours of undisturbed sleep you get each night.

Researchers have reported that women who sleep 5 hours or less per night generally weigh more than those who sleep for more than 7 hours per night. A 16 year long study of 70,000 middle-aged women, which concluded in 2006, found that women who slept 5 hours per night were 32% more likely to experience major weight gain (an increase of 33lbs or more) and 15% more likely to become obese compared to those who slept for 7 hours per night. The study also found that the women who slept less were not eating more, therefore weight gain was linked to the influence of sleep restriction.

So, if you’re struggling to lose those last few pounds, maybe you need to look at your bedtime habits.

Research shows that lack of sleep effects four hormones, cortisol, growth hormone, grehlin and leptin, which all affect weight loss.

Cortisol is produced in times of stress, when we do not get enough sleep cortisol production is  released which has several effects:

• Increases feelings of hunger even when you are full

• Causes cravings for refined sugars (bad carbs)

• Increases fat storage and breaks down muscle tissue (you don’t want this to happen as this will slow your metabolism)

This will carry on for the next day if you haven’t slept properly, hampering all your hard training and healthy eating!

Sleep loss also results in less deep sleep. Deep sleep restores your energy levels. Lack of deep sleep causes a decrease in growth hormone levels. Growth hormone is a protein that helps to regulate the body’s proportions of fat and muscle in adults. With less growth hormone, we reduce the ability to lose fat and grow muscle – again not good if you are trying to lose weight!

Leptin sends a signal to the brain when you are full, however not getting enough sleep causes a decrease in leptin. This means you don’t feel satisfied even when you have eaten, resulting in overeating. You also tend to crave carbohydrates, and because you are tried and want a quick energy fix, many people will often reach for high-sugar carbs which is great for an instant energy hit, but not good for your waistline.

Grehlin stimulates appetite. A lack of sleep causes an increase in grehlin, which makes you want to eat more and slows your weight loss progress.

Additionally, with a loss of sleep, your body may not be able to metabolize carbohydrates as well, which leads to an increased storage of fats and higher levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar can lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that the body has trouble disposing of glucose in the liver and other tissues. It is a trigger for serious health problems such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type II diabetes.

Make sure you need to get at least 7 hours of good quality sleep per night, but ideally 8- 9 hours.

However, it is not just about the amount of sleep you get but also the quality of sleep, So you need to relax before you go to sleep – have a warm bath, read a book or listen to relaxing music, whatever it takes to switch off. Do not watch TV in bed, in fact take the TV out of the bedroom completely, as this can disrupt sleep patterns.

Don’t waste all of your hard work in your workouts and make sure you get enough sleep each night too.