Weight Loss And Sleep: What's The Connection?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.9 million people qualified as obese back in 2019. These included people from age groups of 18 and above. This means that 16% of the world population was obese in 2016. The number keeps increasing over time but let us brush some basics before we move ahead, like how sleep and weight loss is connected. 

What is Obesity?

Obesity means excessive fat percentage in the body. It is one of the most common problems around the world. Obesity leads to several other problems in the human body including chronic diseases. Obesity most commonly leads to blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiac conditions. It also increases the risk of several cancers as well. Experts recognize it as one of the biggest threats to the human body globally.

What Can You Do About it?

The answer is simple: weight loss. People who are obese tend to try and lose weight not just for cosmetic reasons, but for their health. People generally try various things to help them lose weight. These include dieting, yoga, weight lifting, exercises, calisthenics, etc.  Unfortunately, people still have trouble losing weight. One of the prime reasons for this is a bad sleep pattern. We will discuss everything relating to sleep and weight loss in this article; so, stick around.

The connection between sleep and Weight loss

If you are wondering if your sleep patterns affect your weight loss progress; then, the short answer is, yes it does. The human body is quite complex and the way we treat it has extensive results on our health. Your body becomes ready to gain weight when you stay up at the wrong times. Let us discuss how lack of sleep induces weight gain.

How does Sleep Make A Change

You must have a midnight food craving if you are a night owl. It is common for most people to cook something up quickly when they stay up through the night. Most of these people tend to go for eating options that aren’t healthy.
 Furthermore, you will be low on energy and have zero motivation to do physical activities the next morning. Your body does not get the time to heal and restore itself which leads to other health problems as well.  Let us take a look at some of the ways that sleep can help you lose weight.

How Does Sleeping Aid Weight Loss?

 Risks of Obesity

Research shows that people, who do not have healthy sleep, tend to gain weight in most cases. Every person needs a different amount of sleep. However, people who get less than 7 hours of sleep a day, are at a higher risk of gaining weight. The weight gain issues are not age-restricted; research shows that children who have poor sleeping habits have an 89% chance of gaining weight. Similarly, adults have a 55% chance of gaining weight if they do not sleep properly.

Another study observed 60,000 non-obese nurses for 16 years. The results claim that 15% of the nurses who had less than 7 hours of sleep over time, gained weight. All these claims may be observational but there are tons of experimental studies that support similar claims.

Further study showed that people, who got 5 hours of sleep or less for a week, tend to gain 0.82 pounds per week. Most of these people who suffered from irregular or poor sleeping patterns also experienced sleep conditions, like sleep apnea.

Higher Appetite

The fact that people who stay up late or sleep less tend to have a higher appetite is true. You may often see yourself eating extra if you stay up throughout the night. This habit may not affect your immediately, but it does have an impact eventually. Sleep affects two of the most important hunger hormones, Gherlin and Aptin.

Gherlin is the hormone that signals the brain of an empty stomach with a rumbling sensation. These hormones are higher before eating but level down after it. Leptin, on other hand, signals the mind of fullness after one is completes eating.

Staying up at night increases gherlin production and lowers leptin levels. Simply meaning, you feel hungrier when you stay up too often. A 1000 subject study showed that people who slept well at night had higher leptin levels and lower gherlin levels, thus eating less in general. When you do not sleep properly, it induces a stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol also increases appetite in the body; eventually leading to weight gain.

Healthier Choices

Sleeping properly has extensive effects on the body. This includes making healthier choices and a controlled impulse. Poor sleep disrupts activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe is responsible for important activities like decision-making and choices. Therefore, sleep-deprived people tend to make poorer life decisions including diet.

Additionally, it also boosts the rewards centers of the brain. It is why most people love eating ice cream as a means of treating them when they stay up late. These people also have a harder time practicing self-control over their bodies.

Poor Sleep May Decrease Your Resting Metabolism

People who stay up late have long-term health effects too. For instance, lack of sleep causes the human metabolism to slow down. The resting metabolic rate (RMR) is natural and tends to decrease overage. It means that younger people have a higher metabolism even when they rest. Recent studies suggest that sleep deprivation causes this RMR percentage to deplete over time. We need more research to make this claim more substantial but it is likely true for people. Therefore, controlling and maintaining a proper sleep pattern is essential.

Conclusion

After all this discussion, it is safe to say that sleep deprivation has a lot of impact on weight loss. Therefore, anyone who wishes to live a healthy and fit life should always focus on their sleep habits. We hope that this guide helps you understand the gravity of the situation. You can contact us for more information and insight on similar topics.

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/diet/sleep-and-weight-loss#:~:text=Researchers%20found%20that%20when%20dieters,and%20their%20energy%20was%20zapped.

https://www.healthline.com/health/weight-loss/the-science-behind-sleep-and-weight-loss

https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/why-sleep-no-1-most-important-thing-better-body