The Dark Side Of Sleep Deprivation When Trying To Lose Weight

Sleep is quite possibly more important than our diet and exercise combined. It’s probably the most overlooked subject when it comes to losing weight.

The science behind sleep is getting more and more interesting as more things are being discovered. The process of sleep appears to be changing the chemistry within our body which leads to multiple chain reactions that I’ll talk about below.

Here is a list of a few things that happen when we are sleep deprived and therefore why we should prioritise our sleep before anything else when it comes to fitness goals.

The hormones?Leptin and Ghrelin go out of balance

Ghrelin?is a hormone released in the stomach that?signals hunger.?The levels of ghrelin before eating are usually high and low after eating.

Leptin?is released from fat cells and?suppresses hunger?by signalling fullness in the brain.

Without adequate sleep, the body produces more ghrelin and less leptin, leaving you hungry and increasing your appetite. A study of over a thousand participants found that those who slept for short durations had?14.9% higher Ghrelin and 15.5% lower?Leptin levels. The short-sleepers also had a higher BMI (Body Mass Index).

It’s easy to see that this is something we’ve all been through without even realising it.

Lack of sleep increases the hormone Cortisol?in your blood.

This can be responsible for?storing more fat, and many other negative health effects because it goes out of balance. The increase in cortisol can also have a direct influence on our behaviour and our ability to make rational choices.

Sleep helps prevent insulin resistance

The hormone Insulin is responsible for?moving sugar from your bloodstream?to your cells so it can be used as fuel. When the insulin resistance increases there is more sugar floating in our blood and we produce extra insulin to help move it out.

In one study 11 men in a lab were allowed only?4 hours of sleep?for six nights and as result, the ability of their bodies to lower blood sugar levels?decreased by 40%. This pattern is a?precursor for both type 2 diabetes and weight gain.

Your willpower to resist cravings decreases?

It is proven that lack of sleep reduces our ability to resist foods as well as make the correct rational decisions when necessary.

As a consequence when we are?sleep deprived?there’s a much?higher chance to skip our workouts?or at least our performance decreases a lot. In addition to that, our activity level throughout the day could reduce and that obviously will lead to fewer calories burned. (Exactly the opposite of what you need when being on a fat loss journey)

Sleep deprivation causes a decrease in Serotonin

This is a hormone that signals happiness and if it’s decreased the normal sunny day that should be perfect can easily turn into frustration and anxiety which leads to another world of negative chain reactions leading to poorer decisions throughout the day.

Conclusion

I often use an image of a health pyramid to illustrate the importance of Sleep and other factors when it comes to Fat loss or sports performance. Sleep is placed at the bottom and it’s with the highest priority.

Whenever I start working with a new client I always ask what their sleep hygiene looks like and I make sure they address any issues that I find. The point is that, if you don’t optimise your sleep you’ll struggle to lose weight and even more so to maintain it.

Don't forget that if you want personalised advice from me you can still book one 30-minute fitness strategy call with me for free. It takes less than 2 minutes to schedule your call for the coming days: Calendar Link