Sleeping helps fat loss

I’ll be honest – I love my sleep. A good eight hours a night keeps me going and anything less takes its toll. As well making me feel good, getting a good night’s sleep may apparently be helping me lose fat too.

What The Diet Study Involved…

That’s right, according to one of the latest research studies, if you cut back on or skip vital sleeping time you’re less likely to lose weight. Researchers from Chicago University put volunteers who were overweight but healthy on a strict diet of 1,450 calories a day. For the first two weeks, they were allowed to sleep for up to 8.5 hours. For the second two weeks they were only allowed to have up to 5.5 hours of sleep.

On average, the volunteers ended up sleeping about seven hours and 24 minutes during the first half of the study and five hours 14 minutes in the second half.

What The Diet Study Found…

The team found that when the volunteers had adequate amounts of sleep they lost more fat – almost half of the 6.6lb (3kg) lost was fat.

However, when their sleep was reduced, the amount of fat lost dropped down to a fifth. The rest of the weight lost in both cases was muscle. Apparently, when you lose sleep, your body produces a hormone called ghrelin, which may stimulate hunger pangs and encourage you to eat more. 

What This Means….

There’s been a lot of information in the past about the importance of getting a good night’s sleep, but now there’s another reason to add to that list. A good sleep will help you function well, keep you alert, stop your concentration from waning and could help you lose vital fat if you’re on a diet.

Fat is the most important thing to lose – you don’t really want to be losing muscle. It all sounds interesting to me and if there’s a dietary effect of getting plenty of sleep, then I’m happy to try it out (no, I didn’t really need much persuading on that one!). How much sleep do you typically get?

Yours, Delilah

1. by Medexpressrx October 29th, 2010 8:27 am

   Based on individual measurements and medical history, a doctor or nurse can determine what combination of weight loss treatments work best for you.

   a)Therapeutic weight loss techniques:

   The least intrusive weight loss methods, and those that are most often recommended, are adjustments to eating patterns and increased physical activity generally in the form of exercise. Physicians will usually recommend that overweight patients combine a reduction of processed and caloric content of the diet with an increase in physical activity.

   There is a simple and effective rule to follow to bid those extra pounds goodbye. Weight loss indicates that an increase in fiber intake is recommended for regulating bowel movements, and speeding metabolism up.

   Some other methods of losing weight include use of drugs and supplements to decrease appetite, block fat absorption, or gradually reduce stomach volume. Anti-obesity drugs include orlistat, sibutramine, rimonabant, metformin, exonatide, pramlintide, lorcaserin, redux, fen-phen and pyruvate.

   b) Positive Thinking and Social Support:

   One of the oldest tricks in the book is changing behaviour patterns and conditioning.Find people that support you in your quest to be lighter. This includes finding people around you to support weight loss, reduce stress levels and anxiety, and learning to be mentally strong when tempted by food.

   Establish a “buddy” system — Having a friend or family member who understands your goals and is available to provide support and reinforce good behavior is very helpful.

   Learn to be strong — Learning to be strong when tempted by food is an important part of losing weight. A useful example is learning how to say “no” and continue to say no when urged to eat at parties and social gatherings.

   Develop a support system — Maintaining a support system is helpful if you want to lose weight. This is one of the reasons why many commercial groups or organisations are successful. Family support is also essential; if your family does not support your efforts to lose weight, this can gradually slow your progress or even keep you from losing weight.

   Positive Thinking – Substitute a negative thought with a positive one. If you’ve eaten cake and are feeling guilty then make sure that you don’t beat yourself about it.

   c)Crash Diets:

   A crash diet refers to planned nutritional restriction(except water). The desired result is to have the body burn fat for energy with the goal of losing a significant amount of weight in a short time. Negative outcomes of a crash diet include excessive muscle loss, depending on the approach used.

2. by Richard November 20th, 2010 4:44 pm

   Thanks for sharing. I have heard the same before about sleep and losing weight. You are right about the right amount of sleep. I ,myself require about 7.5 to 8 hours a week to feel good. When you work out with weights, you might even need more sleep to recover from the workout.