Can sleep be the fastest way to lose weight?
“I can sleep when I’m dead!”
This is my usual response to those who care enough about me to ask me to go to bed every time I worked through the night.
I never say those words again.
Not just because it’s rude, but because I’m afraid it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy if I keep depriving myself of sleep. When it comes to the fastest way to lose weight, sleep is often a neglected aspect. People only talk about dieting and exercising to lose weight. Nobody says that sleep is important to lose weight. And yet, this is one of the most important components in the weight loss equation.
Many of us find it difficult to get seven hours of sleep every night. Maybe you work for a multinational company like me and need to stay up late to correspond with people in another time zone or have family responsibilities. Whatever the reason, know that your lack of sleep not only affects your body from working at peak performance, but it can also make you put on weight.
Here are reasons why sleep can affect weight loss:
Increase your fat loss hormones:
How to reduce the belly? Make sure our fat loss hormones are in check. Many of our hormones determine whether we lose or gain weight. Many of these hormones in our body are affected by sleep. These include hormones that regulate appetite, such as leptin and ghrelin.
Leptin is the satiety hormone that tells your body that you are full after you have finished a meal. While ghrelin, on the other hand, stimulates your appetite and tells your body that you are starving.
Studies have shown that when we don’t get enough sleep, our leptin levels drop, causing us to feel less satisfied after a meal. During this time, ghrelin levels will increase and send a false signal to our brain, causing us to feel constantly hungry, even when our daily caloric intake is sufficient. To compensate for the lack of energy as a result of lack of sleep, ghrelin triggers hunger that tends to lead to the consumption of carbohydrates and high-calorie foods.
Lack of sleep equates to an increased craving for high-calorie foods that eventually result in weight gain.
There is no proper recovery from training:
When we sleep, our body repairs itself after a long day at work. Preparing and recharging you for another day of hard work. Every additional hour of rest your body receives is additional time for your body to recover.
Exercising is undoubtedly one of the fastest ways to lose weight. If you have exercised that day, you need to rest even more! Without adequate rest, your muscle will not be able to recover or grow. If you don’t allow your body to fully recover, your muscles won’t get stronger and the fat-burning effect of your workouts will be reduced.
Affects your fat loss routine:
Do you remember how it feels to be jet lagged? I’m not talking about those seven or eight hour flights. I’m talking about those 17-hour flights that induce deep vein thrombosis. On my first long-haul flight to Toronto, I didn’t get enough sleep for over 20 hours, including flight time. (Thanks to the smelly diver who sat next to me.) In my luggage, I already brought my gym equipment and was planning to make full use of the hotel’s fitness facilities. But by the time I got to my hotel room, I was so exhausted that I just put on something comfortable, turned off all the lights, and went to sleep, for 14 hours straight. I never had the energy to use the gym during my stay there.
You may not have experienced the same level of burnout. But constant lack of sleep can have the same effect. When you continually don’t get enough sleep, all of your body’s priorities change. He no longer cares about your exercise routine. You no longer care if you don’t make healthy food choices and will find yourself eating whatever you can find just to give your body instant energy to make up for lack of sleep. In essence, burning fat no longer becomes your body’s priority.
How can your body help you lose weight when it doesn’t even have enough energy to keep you awake?
So how to sleep better?
If you really want to lose weight, you need to make sure your body is set up to lose fat all the time. Getting enough sleep is an important component of the entire fat loss equation. Here are some tips you can start adopting today to get a proper night’s rest:
- Lights out: When I was in the military, there is a time dedicated to “lights out” every night to tell us that this is the time we have to sleep. Determine what your “lights out” time is each day and stick to it. Once it’s time to “lights out,” turn them off and go to sleep. No excuses, no delays.
- Develop a sleep routine: We need to program our bodies to recognize a regular sleep schedule. 30 minutes before “lights out” time, prepare for bedtime by doing the following:
- Dim or turn off all the lights in your room, leaving only the lamp on the nightstand. Sit on your bed and read a fiction novel. Nothing serious, no “Sun Tze’s Manual of War”, definitely no emails or anything that requires you to think or strategize.
- Turn off your BlackBerry! This is a cursed object that binds every corporate worker to his job. Your colleagues won’t blame you if you don’t answer their emails by 11:50 pm your time. So turn that damn thing off!
- If you’re hungry, make yourself a glass of hot milk. It helped us sleep better when we were young and you’ll be surprised that it still works for you now.
- Warming your feet by putting on a warm pair of socks can help induce better sleep due to increased blood flow.
- Make love: Sorry ladies, this advice is more for men. During orgasm, our bodies release a cocktail of chemicals, including oxytocin, which helps our bodies relax and induces a semi-sedated state, ideal for sleeping!
The importance of sleep in weight loss success cannot be underestimated. As we strive to be more productive at work by making the most of every hour of the day, we are sacrificing much-needed rest for our bodies. This ongoing sleep deprivation diverts your body’s attention from weight loss to weight gain.
By getting enough sleep, your body will be able to function at its full potential. You’ll be more efficient and productive at work, in the gym, and on your way to the fastest way to lose weight.