Sleep and Weight Loss

How can lying still, snoring in a nice warm bed, and not doing burpees whilst eating celery possibly help weight loss?……well it can.

As a Personal Trainer in Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk one of the questions i ask all new clients is ‘how much sleep do you get each night?’

Staggering studies have shown lack of sleep can increase the likely hood of obesity by up to 53% in adults and 89% in kids!

‘But how can this be?’ I hear you ask. ‘If im moving around burning calories and not lying still asleep and sedentary, how can that help me loose weight?’

Its a very good question and the answer is both simple and complicated.

The simple. When your tired you make bad choices. When fatigued from lack of sleep the frontal lobe responsible for our decision making and self control is dulled. So instead of having a yummy bowl of porridge for breakfast you might opt for a certain sausage and egg maccy muffin.

Also when your tired, lets be honest, the last thing you might want to do is then go to the gym and burn off your fast food breakfast.

So far so simple. When tired you make bad food choices and cant be bothered or dont have the energy to then work it off.

Now the slightly more complicated. Your body produces two hormones called leptin and gherlin. The first suppresses appetite and the later increases it. And wouldnt you know lack of sleep decreases leptin and increases gherlin. Studies show poor sleep decreases leptin by 15.5% and increases gherlin by 14.9%. The net result is you want more food!

Also when your asleep your body has a chance to regulate your blood sugar levels. If your not getting enough sleep it cant and your cells may become insulin resistant, which can lead to weight gain as you store fat more easily.

So there you have it. A very brief explanation as to why we need our sleep…… I could go into more detail but im off to bed……