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 work the night.
I don’t say those words anymore.
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 diet and exercise 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 a good seven hours of sleep each night. Maybe you work for a multinational company like me and need to stay up late to correspond with people from another time zone or you have family responsibilities. Whatever the reason, know that not only does your lack of sleep affect your body from performing at peak performance, it can also make you fat.
Here are the 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 your appetite like leptin and ghrelin.
Leptin is the hormone that gives you the feeling of fullness 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 to starve.
Studies have shown that when we don’t get enough sleep, our leptin levels drop, making us feel less full after a meal. During this time, ghrelin levels will increase sending a false signal to our brain causing us to feel perpetually hungry even when our daily caloric intake is sufficient. To compensate for the lack of energy as a result of insufficient sleep, hunger triggered by ghrelin tends to lead to the consumption of carbohydrates and calorie-dense foods.
Insufficient sleep equates to an increased craving for high calorie foods that eventually results in weight gain.
Without adequate recovery from training:
When we sleep, our body repairs itself after a long day at work. Preparing and recharging for another day of 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’ve exercised that day, you need even more rest! 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.
It affects your fat loss routine:
Do you remember what it feels like to have jet lag? I’m not talking about those seven or eight hour flights. I mean those 17 hour deep vein thrombosis inducing flights. 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 snoring man who sat next to me). In my luggage, I had already brought my gym equipment and was planning to make full use of the hotel’s fitness facilities. But by the time I walked into my hotel room, I was so exhausted that I 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 time there.
You may not have experienced the same level of burnout. But a 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 worries about your exercise routine. You no longer care if you don’t choose healthy foods and you will find yourself eating whatever you can find just to give your body instant energy to make up for the lack of sleep. In essence, burning fat no longer becomes your body’s priority.
How can your body help you lose weight when you don’t even have enough energy to stay awake?
So how do you sleep better?
If you are serious about losing weight, you need to make sure your body is prepared 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 dedicated “lights out” schedule every night to tell us that this is the time we have to sleep. Determine what your “lights out” schedule is each day and stick to it. Once it’s “lights out” time, turn off the lights and go to sleep. No excuses, no delay.
- Develop a sleep routine: we need to program our body 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 bedside table lamp. Sit on your bed and read a fictional novel. Nothing serious, no “Sun Tze War Manual”, definitely no emails or anything that requires you to think or strategize.
- Turn off your BlackBerry! This is a cursed object that ties every corporate worker to their job. Your colleagues won’t blame you if you don’t reply to their emails by 11.50pm your time. So turn that damn thing off!
- If you’re hungry, make yourself a glass of warm milk. It helped us sleep better when we were young and you will be surprised to know 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 tip is more for men. During orgasm, our bodies release a cocktail of chemicals, including oxytocin, which helps our bodies relax and induces a state of semi-sedation ideal for sleeping.
The importance of sleep for weight loss success cannot be underestimated. As we live to be more productive at work by making the most of every hour of the day, we are sacrificing the great need for rest our bodies require. This continuous sleep deprivation diverts your body’s attention from weight loss to weight gain.
If you get enough sleep, your body will be able to function to its fullest potential. You’ll be more efficient and productive at work, in the gym, and on your way to the fastest way to lose weight.