Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain

Sleep deprivation and weight gain are totally connected. One of the biggest myths is that intense exercise causes fat loss. Fat loss occurs during deep sleep. So does the building of lean muscle mass.

If you would like to do a test, do a check of your body fat percentage before going to sleep and have a very good night’s sleep. By this I mean a lot of deep sleep.

When you check your body fat % in the morning it is lower.

The same will be true for your weight.

During sleep is when very powerful fat-burning hormones are released. The more you allow these fat-burning hormones to be released the more fat you burn. It is as straightforward as that. You can read about these hormones on "Fat Buring Hormones" .

Even better though, these fat-burning hormones reverse the age of your metabolism and increase your lean muscle and change your body shape!

Sleep deprivation causes weight gain because sleep deprivation releases fat-storing hormones that not only lock down any burning of fat but also destroy lean muscle. You can read about these hormones in "Hormones and Weight Gain" .

Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain: Hunger

Sleep deprivation also does some other things with regard to quick weight loss. It causes a hormone to be released that makes you hungry. It is called “Ghrelin”. When ghrelin is released, you feel very hungry and unsatisfied. Even when you are physically full. You can read about ghrelin in "Ghrelin, the Hunger Hormone" .

There is a counter hormone to ghrelin called “Leptin” You can read about it in "Leptin, the 'I'm Full Hormone' " . This is the hormone that makes you feel full. This gets decreased when you are sleep deprived.

Sleep is when there is an incredible amount of cellular regeneration that takes place. Your body heals when it is in deep sleep.

But when it comes to leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin production increases with sleep derivation and Leptin decreases with sleep deprivation. So with less sleep, you can have a huge increase in hunger making it hard to stick to your plan of losing weight!

I write in more detail about these two satiety hormones in "Appetite Suppressant" .

Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain: What To Do

1. If you need to sleep more, sleep earlier instead of sleeping in. When you are tired and run down that has to be “made up for” when you sleep. Then after that is made up for, the deep sleep enters and the healing begins. So the total sleep needed is increased. This is less efficient for you. When you sleep and you are not tired, you start healing right away and need less total sleep.
   
   
2. Get away from the TV and/or computer before going to sleep. This relaxes your mind and puts it at ease.
   
   
3. Make a list for the next day. Plan it out. Especially if you have something upsetting you. Make a plan of action for the next day.
4. Take the herbal sleep teas.
   
   
5. Don’t drink caffeine drinks or foods after lunch or in the second half of the day. In fact, quitting caffeine altogether will help your natural weight loss tremendously in many ways.
   
   
6. Take a Calcium-Magnesium formula or a magnesium formula before going to sleep. The Calcium-magnesium formula soothes muscles and the magnesium soothes nerves.
   
   
7. Go for a walk and look at things for a while before going to sleep.
   
   
8. When I put someone on a sleep diet, I really need them to get a good night’s sleep for about a week straight to get the benefits. The body takes a bit of time to get used to being regenerated and refreshed. It has gotten trained to be in fight or flight mode and it cannot re-wire itself. So after several consecutive days of good deep sleep, the person will start needing less sleep and they feel very good. Cravings go down, the eyes look less puffy and they feel calmer. Then I move on to other phases of their weight loss.