Studies Identify Relationships Between Sleep and Weight Gain (Part One)

It is with great joy that I pen this article. It seems that every weightloss tip involves taking something enjoyable out of your diet or routine. Sure, its for our own good… and the end result is that we’ll feel better, but sometimes it really seems as though we’ve got to exercise twenty hours a day and eat nothing more than broccoli to win the battle of the bulge. This time it’s different. This time it’s special. For the next couple of issues, we’re going to discuss the importance of sleep as it relates to weight-control and fat loss. Yes, I am happy to suggest that you should sleep more and sleep better!

You don’t need to be a scientist to realize how important sleep is. Simply skip it for a night and you’ll never forget why you need it. Sleep is the time that we relax, recharge, renew and renovate. For our minds, it is the time that we let the stresses of the day go so that we can start anew the next day. For our bodies, it is the time that our muscles are rested and healed.

On a biochemical level, however, there is a lot more going on than just rest and repair. This is the time in which the body releases and regulates the majority of its hormones. Three main hormones have been identified as directly affecting your weight in three different and important ways.

The first hormone is cortisol. If you’ve been awake at all the last several years, you’ve heard of this stress hormone and its reputation for storing away fat in the most visible ways. Cortisol is there for a reason, but changes in lifestyle have caused it to work against us. Under duress, the human body releases cortisol to provide bursts of energy, while slowing the metabolism. In a life-or-death struggle with a sabre-toothed tiger, this beneficial chemical reaction can provide additional energy needed to survive a “flee or fight” situation.

Our modern, and more sedantary, lifestyles find us, more often than not, experiencing stress while at work, in traffic or at home with the kids. Because our activity level does not compensate for a lowered metabolism, the fat that we should be burning gets affixed to the beltline. The more stress we experience, the more cortisol is produced, the more fat is stored… The story is repeated day after day, and the end result is that we gain weight from stored fat.

The second hormone is leptin. Leptin is know as the “satiety hormone”. If you aren’t familiar with the word “satiety” it’s root is the same as that for the word “satisfy”. When we have the proper amount of leptin in our blood, our bodies recognize that we are “full” sooner. That is, we know when to stop eating because the leptin allows us to realize that we should be satisfied.

A study out of the University of Chicago published in “The Lancet” in 1999 followed a group of young men who were in good shape. This group of men were limited to only four hours of sleep during a sixteen day period. The effects were amazing:

* Leptin production was down causing the men to feel excessively hungry, so much so that the men consumed an average of 1,000 additional calories each day

* Cortisol levels increased so that the metabolism slowed down

* Blood glucose levels increased to pre-diabetic levels, a sign that their bodies were unable to properly process carbohydrate

Okay, you probably agree that you don’t want excess cortisol or a shortage of leptin in your blood. So how do you know if you are getting enough sleep? Sleep experts suggest that if you answer “yes” to these three questions, you are likely getting enough sleep:

1. Do you wake up on your own, without an alarm clock each day?

2. Are you able to function at an optimal level throughout the day without getting drowsy?

3. Are you able to fall asleep easily each night?

Well, that should give you something to sleep on… we’ll continue this thread in the next issue when we look at the third hormone (human growth hormone) and how to benefit from some really smart protein powder!

Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (http://www.weeklyweightlosstips.com) and the Chief Technology Officer for WellnessPartners.com (http://www.WellnessPartners.com), an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), r+ alpha lipoic acid (R+ ALA), and green tea extract.

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