Sleep and Weight Gain – What you should do

Sleep and Weight Gain. Studies have indicated that sleep deprivation is related to weight gain. Sleep well and keep fit.

Could lack of sleep be causing you to gain weight? Do you have any idea how this is happening? Confusing indeed but in a moment I will be telling you how sleep is associated with weight gain and from the information you are just a bout to get you will be able to tell whether your weight problem is related you your sleeping patterns on not and depending on your findings you will make very informed decision going forward. Now let me ask you as we start the discussion how often do you sleep or dose at your workplace? Ponder about that for a while and if your answer is yes then what are you doing about it?

In order to fight that sleep a way probably you may have reached out for a cup of coffee or more and some doughnuts for an immediate shot of energy and before you know it you have just forgot your day’s schedule of exercising and on your way home you pick some junk food home for dinner because time for home cooking is not there. When all these are finally done you are back in bed too wound up to sleep. This then becomes consistent and ultimately the consistency of inadequacy of sleep sabotages your waistline and your health. Wait a minute you’re facing the challenges of weight gain. My dear reader it normally starts in unnoticeable ways like that. With the problem of sleep deprivation and low energy, you will repeatedly go for a portion of potato chips or other comfort foods.

The ultimate result

Unwanted pounds due to poor food choices together with lack of exercise set the stage for obesity and further sleep loss. To illustrate this further the debt of sleep is the replica of credit card debt where all accruing credit card debt you will settle with high interest rates and if you don’t, your account will be shut down until you pay it all off. Therefore accruing too much sleep debt only leads your body crash. You must ensure that you do not brag about your strength of staying up all night because it is not in fact it is a weakness because you do pay a price for staying up late and getting up early.

Understanding the Sleep-Diet Connection

Hardly will you find sleep-diet connection being addressed by most diet authors and probably you have even heard about the sleep diet, which suggests you can lose weight while you catch your ZZZs. Have you? It’s worth noting that not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight however when you are sleep-deprived (i.e. meaning that you are not getting enough time of sleep or good quality sleep), your metabolism will not function properly. On average people need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night and if you are getting this already, a slight increase of say half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but on the other hand if you are used to sleeping for say five-hour and you increase this to seven hours a night, you will start shading off some weight.

How specifically will lack of sleep affects one’s ability to lose weight will have a lot to do with our nightly hormones. We have two hormones which are very instrumental in this process and they are ghrelin and leptin.

Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin.

Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.

More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain i.e. you are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived.

The Sleep-Weight Loss Solution

The big question here is, what can you do about sleep deprivation?

First, look at how much you sleep vs. how well you sleep – Some people such as new mothers may only get to sleep for a four-hour stretch. And there are some people who get 7.5 hours of sleep that is poor quality because of pain or an underlying sleep disorder, and this has the same effect as if they got less sleep.

Trouble-shoot both with improved sleep hygiene and for beginners avoid any caffeine in the afternoon because it will keep you in the lighter stages of sleep which are associated with poor sleep at night.

Exercise also helps improve sleep quality. How soon before bed should you exercise? It depends with the individuals because everyone is different. It’s more important that you exercise than it is when you exercise and to be safe avoid exercise right before going to bed even though some people exercise better before bed and it doesn’t affect their sleep.

Take interest on what you’re feeding on before bed time like for instance foods and drinks like pizza and beer before bedtime is not a good idea. It is also not recommended that you eat a big meal moments to bedtime instead eating a few healthy snacks and then having a light meal like a bowl of cereal if you’re running close to bedtime. Heavy, rich meals before bed can also increase risk of heartburn, which will certainly keep you up all night.

Finally I ask what if you are getting enough hours of sleep but wake up and feel sleepy the next day? Talk to your doctor about seeing a sleep specialist. After conducting a thorough evaluation and sleep study, in which you are monitored while sleeping, the sleep specialist can help identify any underlying problem. Together you can develop a treatment plan so that you get more high-quality sleep and maybe even slim down. But generally in all these doctor Dalal Akoury of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center will be there for you for any obesity and weight related problems you may have. Together with her team of experts they will focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Sleep and Weight Gain – What you should do