The effects of lack of sleep on weight loss
It would be nice to say that we can do what we want, when we want, and not have any changes in our weight. But for some strange reason, which is probably a combination of many factors and not just one, when we don’t sleep enough it is possible to gain weight.
I’ve put my own thoughts together as to why this might happen, and it would be good to hear of the experiences of others, and indeed if there is some proper research on it – I couldn’t find any.
I don’t sleep particularly well, and I struggle with my weight. But then again, it’s my own fault if I stay up late and then get the midnight munchies – something that you should definitely do if you are looking to lose weight is to avoid such temptation. Traditionally it’s because your metabolism slows down at night and you don’t burn it but store it. I think that that is untrue, and in fact what happens is you use up all your calories throughout the day, and then still go and eat late at night. It’s the body’s way of wanting to stay awake.
My wife, on the other hand, could sleep for England. She certainly prefers to be in bed by 10.30pm, and the alarm goes off at 6.45 am (I am usually up praying at 6pm – early morning start with the Boss…). But if we look at our individual patterns throughout the day, I have less activity about my day than she does, even though mine is longer. In other words her intensity of effort is greater I think because of her more rested body.
But it goes further. I have noticed that when I am more rested I feel better, and have more motivation to do exercise – certainly in the winter you need that to brace against the cold and rain.
And then when you are actually out there, you can really feel the difference in the intensity of effort that you can apply to your exercise regime. After all, recovered muscles mean more effort and that means more calories burnt so more weight loss.
Then there is the affect of tiredness. You get depressed, which is a bad thing in the winter if you are already a SAD sufferer like I am. That can in turn lead you to comfort eating problems.
So the summary to all this is get sleep: you exercise better, avoid the midnight munchies, and can side step problems associated with depression and comfort eating.
Now if I could only convince myself to follow my own advice…
Free: The British heart foundation: lose weight…for good book
Interesting…I sleep very badly because I suffer from Sleep Apnea, or severe snoring! This leaves me feeling very tired and waking feeling as if I haven’t slept even when I have. Part of the cause of sleep apnea is being overweight and by co-incidence I was talking to a Doctor at hospital this morning about it and she said loosing weight would help, but there is a ficious circle here as when you are not sleeping well and are tired, it is very difficult to loose weight! I am working on it!!
I think your best bet is to try to exercise earlier in the morning, go for a walk as soon after sunrise as possible. That has a great effect on your body clock, pumping light into you and waking you up properly in the morning so that by the time you get to the evening you will be more ready for bed and sleep better. If you are OK drinking coffee, then only drink it in the morning. Have a banana and a coffee about half an hour before you go out. Do a good half hour every day. When you get back home, have your normal breakfast. That will give you more energy in the morning to do the exercise. It’s like I said, it’s more likely that it’s the effect of a number of things which cause the weight gain, and it is possible, though needs motivation, to be able to tackle the problems. That’s what I think anyway! Oh, and check out the british heart foundation diet (that’s a link which will take you to a page which will link straight to the pages you need on the BHF diet site). Good to hear from you again BTW!