Sleep And Weight Loss: Know How They Are Related?

Medically reviewed by G. Liakeas, MD FACT CHECKED

Weight loss is not all about exercising and dieting yourself out. A night of proper sleep and giving your body rest is vital when you consider losing weight with the right mindset.

The moment you are inspired to lose weight, do ensure to take some rest. It makes, sure enough, strength restores to stay fit. Those who do not get enough sleep suffer from many problems while losing weight.

Daily 7 hours of minimum sleep is vital when you look forward to staying fit. That is why people who find it difficult to lose weight majorly find issues because of the irregular sleep cycle.

In totality, one could easily say that maintaining a proper sleep routine could be one of the ways through which you could reduce your weight levels without gym. Through this article, let us discuss how sleeping is significant when losing weight.

sleep and weight loss
  1. It Helps You Resist Weight Gain

    People with shorter sleep cycles (usually lower than 6 to 7 hours a day) tend to gain weight faster. It is because of the increased body mass index in such people.

    People fail to get sufficient sleep, which is required by an adult to stay healthy. The study says that a massive statistic of obese people is a direct cause of poor sleep cycles.

    The sleep cycle is also the reason behind the accumulation of body and belly fat. It is found even in adolescents. Luckily, this problem could easily be reversed, improving your sleeping pattern.

    So, napping for an optimal time is very important to lose weight. A short sleeping cycle could increase the maximum risk of obesity in middle childhood.

    Besides this, a short sleeping cycle also increases your hunger levels by triggering your hunger hormone.

    It explains why exercising does not increase leptin, which is responsible for making you feel full.

    People with short sleep also tend to have more stress. Such cases happen because less sleeping time increases your cortisol levels. It is a hormone that is related to stress.

    Not to miss, Sleeping for six to eight hours is also one of the hacks to improve testosterone levels.

    The likelihood is that it could also worsen or develop a sleeping disorder, which may get even worse due to weight gain.

  2. Affects Your Appetite

    Sleeping is a fundamental daily activity since it gives our body rest. Additionally, it keeps your calorie intake in control. It has been a basic observation that if you stay up late, you will feel hungry.

    Thus, a sleep-deprived person tends to consume more calories than anyone. On top of that, if you are following a specific diet, you may want to avoid keeping your body sleep-deprived.

    This could also be one of the reasons why diets don’t work. Generally speaking, increased fat and carbs are digested when your body is sleep-deprived.

    It indeed ends up as obesity besides exercising and dieting.

    A sleep-deprived person could take an additional 385 calories daily. It happens because of the effect sleep has on ghrelin and leptin.

    Sleep deprivation causes fat cravings like chocolate, cake, portion sizes, and many others. So getting proper sleep is quite essential.

  3. Better Food Choices

    According to a study, proper sleep may help you make better food choices. It is also seen that lack of sleep causes your brain to work disastrously.

    When you lack sleep, your brain tends to fail in resisting tempting food. You feel hungry and usual at night if sleep deprived. It adversely affects your food choices.

    People pay more for food than usual when sleep-deprived. This shows that people find it hard to self-control themselves in such situations. A person’s smell sensitivity also is at its peak when waking up for long times.

    This is why sleep deprivation could cause a higher intake of calories, food, and fat to compensate for hunger. One must therefore sleep properly on time for at least 7 hours a day to lose weight and maintain it.

  4. Late Night Snacking

    Late-night snacking could be very harsh on your cycle when trying to lose weight. Sleeping on time may help you prevent late-night snacking. On the contrary, staying up late increases your window of time to eat.

    A sleep-deprived person tends to go for fewer nutritional options. This is because sleep deprivation hinders your brain work. Late-night snacking is always the reason for weight gain.

    This happens as a result of a lack of resistance toward tempting food late at night. On the other hand, eating food near bedtime does not turn your food well and leaves it in the digestion process for longer times.

    This may decrease your quality of sleep and give you weight gain. Acid reflux in digestion is another common problem you may face when not sleeping well on time.

    It is recommended to limit your food-eating time to 2 to 3 hours before bedtime. Even so, eating cottage cheese and yogurt late at night could be rather beneficial for your hunger.

  5. Effect On Metabolism

    Metabolism is very important for the human body and is needed to be present in the body in the right amount.

    Metabolism has the responsibility of converting food into energy. One way to keep your metabolism intact is to sleep well. Sleeping helps the functionality of your metabolism. 

    Metabolism of your body also works while your body is at rest on a rate called (RMR) Resting Metabolic Rate is affected by age, weight, height, sex, and muscle mass.

    Sleeping is one of the biggest factors affecting this rate since the more you rest the higher the rate.

    This is why a person should sleep about 7 hours a day to keep the resting metabolic rate (RMR) good.

    A bad RMR could be restored by taking proper sleep for one day and then continuing it.

    Muscle synthesis is also affected negatively by the poor quality of sleep. We need proper sleep to oxidize fats into energy. This isn’t possible when a person isn’t resting.

    This bad habit ultimately results in obesity and a bad physique and health. The problem comes when two beliefs clash.

    Few claim that sleeping is the most important factor affecting the repair and growth of muscles.

    On the other hand, other beliefs claim that sleeping doesn’t affect the growth of muscles in the body.

  6. Enhancement In Physical Activity

    Sleeping well is one of the important steps to improving energy levels naturally.A person stays awake and keeps working. Even if the body isn’t moving yet the complete body is active. The energy in the body keeps draining.

    Low energy in the body further results in weakness. Henceforth, sleeping is very important for physical activity.

    It has been claimed that the body needs rest to restore the muscles and their growth.

    Once that is done a person gets full energy to perform a physical task. This is why a person should have a good 7-hour sleep daily.

    A daily 7-hour sleep gives the body enough energy to recover from the previous tenuous activity.

    Further, it provides more energy to perform the next task with enhanced power which has been gained by the previous activity.

    Your motor skills enhance by taking proper rest after activity and sleeping on time.

Tips To Sleep Better At Night

Getting better sleep in today’s world is a tough task. The fast-moving lives of people these days make it nearly impossible for people to get a good amount of peaceful sleep.

It is a fact that you could only find peace when you take things slow. The same is the fundamentals of gentle sleep. You need to take it slow to have a nice peaceful bedtime every night.

Here are some tips to follow to get better sleep at night.

  • Shut down all the screens 1 hour before sleeping at night
  • Read a book for an hour or a half before sleeping
  • The bedroom should be kept for relaxation and not for work
  • Taking a warm bath or meditating before sleep could help
  • Follow a sleeping schedule – Sleep and wake up at the right time
  • Do not consume caffeine or chocolate before sleeping

Conclusion

Sleeping is quite a crucial aspect of life. It makes a person joyful while keeping the body healthy. A fit body takes a good amount of sleep every night. Obesity could worsen due to staying up at night.

Exercising and dieting is not the only factor helping reduce body weight. Sleeping the right amount of time is very important to losing weight.

If taken lightly, sleep deprivation could cause late-night snacking and other sleep disorders. That is the purpose of doctors suggesting to sleep right on time and wake up at the right time.