What Does Sleep Have to Do With Weight Loss?

Sleep deprivation has been linked to weight gain and obesity in many, many studies. Since the early 80’s there have been numerous studies and tests to discover how sleep, or the lack of sleep, affects the body. Every study has presented similar conclusive results. Those who sleep less carry more body fat.

How much sleep should you be getting?

The average healthy adult should sleep a minimum of 7 hours per night. 8-9 hours is even better. Anything less than 7 hours and your hormone levels begin to get out of whack. The two significant hormones that have been linked to this weight gain are leptin and ghrelin. When you do not get enough sleep, your body does not produce enough leptin and it produces too much ghrelin.

What Does Sleep Have to Do With Weight Loss?

So what does this mean? Leptin is one of the hormones that control your metabolism. It is the trigger for feeling full and maintaining adequate energy levels. When you produce enough leptin it signals your brain that you have taken in enough calories and therefore have enough energy for the time being so you do not need to eat more. When there is not enough leptin in your system it signals the brain that you are energy deprived. This sets off a series of responses. It triggers a reaction that says, “I don’t have enough energy right now to burn calories” and then goes into fat storage mode. All of the carbohydrates then begin getting stored away as fat so your body will have enough energy reserves when you need it. It makes you feel like you are lethargic and are less likely to be physically active. It also triggers the brain to think it is hungry even though you have consumed enough calories to sustain you.

Ghrelin on the other hand is the exact opposite of leptin. This hormone is like the shut off valve. It signals the brain to turn off the energy burning and trigger the hunger response. When you have too much ghrelin in your system your body thinks it is in starvation mode. It turns off the calorie burning process and begins storing fat.

When you sleep, the normal process would be for the leptin to increase sending the signal to your brain that you have enough energy for now. Your ghrelin would decrease because you have no need to burn calories while you are not active during sleep. For those who are sleep deprived and the hormone levels become reversed, it throws your body into constant starvation mode. You no longer get the proper signals to the brain and your body begins converting all of the carbohydrates you consume into fat storage.

Interestingly enough, the people who are sleep deprived and overweight do not consume any more calories than those who get 7 or more hours of sleep per night. They also had similar exercise routines yet the sleep deprived individuals were 73 times more likely to be overweight.

If you are struggling with weight gain and do not seem to be able to shed those extra pounds, try getting an extra hour of sleep every night and you just might find that the pounds begin to melt away without you having to make any significant changes in your lifestyle. Not only will the weight begin to decrease, your energy levels will increase making you feel like a whole new person.

For more weight loss tips download Dr. Weaver’s “10 Secrets for Successful Weight Loss and Keeping it Off”