In conjunction with that, they’ll turn to fitness and exercise to supplement their new dietary habits. However, few people think about sleep when it comes to weight loss.
Well, today’s topic is all about sleep and its effects on weight loss. How does sleep help with losing weight? And better yet, how can you use sleep to its full potential?
The answers to these questions lie ahead. Let’s dive deep into the science behind sleep and its relation to our immediate goal of losing weight.
1. Sleep Suppresses Your Appetite:
Research into the nature of sleep and its effect on our bodies revealed that lack of sleep results in an increased appetite and feeling less “full” after a meal.
To understand this better, it’s important to realise that our hunger is regulated by neurotransmitters. In biology, neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that allow for communication between nerve cells to occur.
Neurotransmitters come in many shapes and forms. Many of them have names to describe their unique functions. The ones we’re interested in here when discussing appetite are ghrelin and leptin.
You can think of them as Yin and Yang when discussing their function.
- Leptin: It’s responsible for making you feel full after consuming a meal.
- Ghrelin: It’s responsible for making you feel hungry when you haven’t eaten.
To maintain equilibrium and keep everything in check, the body naturally regulates the rising and falling levels of these two neurotransmitters every day, which is how you know when you need to eat and when not to.
As you might imagine, a lack of sleep can lead to dysregulation of these two hormones, where suddenly ghrelin shoots up and leptin goes down.
The remedy to this problem is getting sufficient sleep at night. We’re not talking about a nap. We’re strictly talking about quality sleep hours, with full REM activity occurring during your sleep cycle.
This means it’s time for you to change your sleeping habits and stick to a schedule where you get 8 hours of sleep at night instead of just 4. Again, it’s important to emphasize that sleep deprivation is the culprit behind feeling hungry all the time.
Now, when your sleep patterns improve, you’ll find yourself not craving high-sugar, high-carb foods anymore, which are a big contributor to weight gain. Moreover, your appetite will be suppressed, as in, you won’t feel hungry all the time as you did before.
From there, you can start modifying your diet the way you see fit, but the first step is to get enough sleep at night.
2. Sleep Regulates Your Metabolism:
Metabolism is the biological process governing how your body uses energy to help you survive. Energy comes from the foods and drinks you consume, and while it’s important to consume less in general when your goal is to lose weight, it also helps tremendously if your sleeping habits are in check.
Sleep does not increase metabolism directly. Rather, it helps keep your metabolism working well. When you’re sleep-deprived, you stay awake for longer.
This forces your body to consume more to help deal with the new stress, which is where your metabolism starts working against you. You’ll find yourself eating more, sleeping less, and messing with what’s known as your circadian rhythm.
By getting enough sleep, your metabolism won’t get out of whack. Instead, it’ll help keep the hormone insulin working properly.
Briefly, insulin is the hormone responsible for converting foods, sugars, and starches into energy.
- When insulin sensitivity is high, your body can break down fats in your bloodstream around the clock.
- When it drops low, the opposite occurs, which leads to weight gain because your body has no choice but to store these fats.
So, keep metabolism at the forefront when thinking about weight loss.
3. Sleep Increases Your Energy Levels:
This one is a bit obvious but bears mentioning because it’s so significant. When you’re sleep-deprived, your energy levels tank, and you won’t be able to do your normal everyday activities properly, never mind the more demanding ones.
In particular, you’ll find exercising next to impossible when you haven’t slept enough.
That’s where the downward spiral begins.
Less sleep means less energy, which means less physical activity. The end result is weight gain and a drop in performance so severe it might affect everything in your life.
Getting enough deep sleep solves this problem. The science is clear that the last stage in non-REM sleep is one where the body begins producing optimal amounts of energy.
To be precise, we’re talking about ATP production, the energy currency in the human body. In general, you want as much deep sleep as possible to perform at full capacity during the day.
Not only will it become easier to get things done, but you’ll also have a lot of energy you can direct toward physical exercise, which will all ultimately help you lose weight.
Once you get into the habit of exercising and taking care of your fitness, you’ll find it much easier to fall asleep early, which creates a positive feedback loop where your body recharges during the night and allows you to do anything during the day.
In Conclusion:
Hopefully, by now, you understand fully how important sleep is for weight loss. It’s your best tool to get your body into a condition where it’s easy to burn calories, maintain a high energy output, and stick to better food choices.
Biologically speaking, sleep has an effect not just on your brain but also on everything from your metabolism to your hormonal balance.
In general, effective sleeping habits require that you change your lifestyle. You need to learn how to get to sleep early, how to time your meals properly, and how to build a routine that keeps you going.
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