How much sleep you get may be just as important as exercise and what you eat.
If you don’t get the necessary sleep your body requires, your brain will search for energy elsewhere, such as high-calorie foods and sugars.
There are 2 hormones that control your appetite, one of which is known as the hunger hormone (ghrelin), and the other, as the fullness hormone (leptin).
These 2 buddies are there to balance out your cravings, but lack of sleep makes them unbalanced.
Below are some reasons why sleep is important for weight loss and what to do to help you during this journey.
1. A lack of sleep may increase the appetite and better the chance of becoming obese
Hormones play an important role in appetite and sleep regulation, which is why when you sleep less, you disrupt your hormones. This, in turn, can make you want to eat foods that are high in calories, even if you just ate a meal 1 hour ago.
What to do:
- Sleep in a dark room — when you’re exposed to light there’s a higher chance it will be harder to fall and stay asleep and a higher risk of obesity.
- Take it easy, don’t stress too much — this may lead to poor sleep and weight gain.
- Go to bed early — when you go to bed late, you take in more calories.
2. Sleeping early prevents late-night snacks
Eating late-night snacks causes our metabolism to keep functioning when it should be relaxing, resulting in the calorie intake being stored as fat. It may also not help us with getting a good night’s sleep. However, eating a low-calorie snack may not do any harm.
What to do:
- Eat dinner 2 hours before going to bed.
- Eat enough throughout the day to block your cravings at night.
- If you really feel hungry after dinner, don’t eat sugary foods. Instead, grab some fruit, low-fat yogurt, or some carrots.
3. Sleeping can enhance physical activity
In order to get energy for exercise, you need to be fully rested, and when you’re rested, your body develops the growth hormone, which makes the muscles in the body grow. The growth hormone is usually activated during sleep, and if you’re lacking sleep, then it is suppressed, resulting in a lesser chance of burning fat.
It’s also quite dangerous to work out when we’re tired, especially when lifting weights. In case of an injury, the growth hormone helps to speed up the healing process, which is why it’s important to be fully rested.
4. Sleep can decrease the desire for sugar
It may not come as a surprise if you’re hungry for sweets after a long day at work. Sleeplessness and food cravings are, in fact, frenemies, which is because lack of sleep contributes to the imbalance of appetite-regulating hormones that causes weight gain.
What to do:
5. Sleeping longer may help you to avoid weight gain
Sleeping for a short period of time, such as 6-7 hours per night, is connected to weight gain. More specifically, it may result in having a wider waist and more belly fat. Not only does this occur in adults, but also in children, especially in their middle childhood years (6-8 years old).
What to do:
- Get 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
How many hours of sleep do you get at night? What changes do you want to make to lose weight?
