This is great information because the latest research shows that it impacts 95% of Americans! Did you know that sleeping dictates how your body chooses to store or burn body fat? There are lots of hormones that are impacted by your sleep, many of which impact your weight. With this post we are going to address only 2, but there are many, many more, so this is just the tip of the iceberg.
These 2 hormones specifically help control your appetite. They are called Leptin and Ghrelin. How they work is that Leptin is produced by fat cells and helps tell your body when you are full. Ghrelin is produced in your intestinal tract tells your body when you are hungry. So what is the connection you ask?
Not sleeping enough drives down Leptin levels. In essence your lack of sleep is telling your body that no matter what you eat and how much you will never really feel full. Secondly you have Ghrelin. When you don't sleep enough Ghrelin levels rise, making you hungrier.
What does all of this mean? Not sleeping encourages you to eat more! And we all know that eating more calories then you burn will make you gain body fat. In fact, studies have shown that lack of sleep can induce overeating by up to 45% extra calories. So if you should be eating 2,000 calories and are sleep deprived that these 2 hormones could be telling you to eat as much as 2,900 calories just to feel full. At that rate you would be gaining over 1 pound of body fat every 4 days! YIKES.
This brings us to the vicious cycles. Overweight people suffer from several weight related sleeping problems. Typical discomfort from the contortion of lying down can be enough to keep you from sound sleep. Then there are dysfunctional sleep issues such as sleep apnea, which can also be weight related and causes severe sleep issues.
To sum it up. Help yourself get healthy by ensuring that you are getting proper sleep! Start the positive cycle of sleeping to boost your metabolism, burn more fat, sleep more comfortable and burn more fat!
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