Science reveals weight loss takes more than diet and exercise
October 6th 2010 13:28
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Many of the clients I’ve worked with initially come to me frustrated; they feel they’ve little control of their body. Despite exercising religiously and eating what they say is a healthy diet, weight loss either doesn’t happen, or soon plateaus after initial success.
If that’s you, or someone you know, science has revealed what clinicians have known for years: weight loss takes more than just eating a truly healthy diet and sticking to a fitness workout program.
A study just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has found that people who sleep 8.5 hours per night lose more fat, and hold onto more muscle than people who sleep 5.5 hours.(1)
A lack of sleep affects our hormonal systems by releasing hormones that make us hungry and encourage us to eat more the next day, which makes it harder for us to lose weight and keep it off.
In the research, overweight male and females, aged 35-49 and of a variety of ethnicities spent two 14-day periods in a laboratory where they slept. Each participant spent two weeks sleeping 8.5 hours a night, and then three months later, came back to the lab, and slept for 5.5 hours a night for a fortnight. They were fed breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a bed time snack along with a multi-vitamin and iron supplement, and had a 10% reduction in calorie intake. During they day they engaged in office work and outdoor leisure activities.
The study says: “The combination of energy and sleep restriction in overweight adults resulted in a modified state of negative energy balance characterized by decreased loss of fat and considerably increased loss of fat-free body mass.” What this means is that if you get less sleep than you need, especially if it’s close to 5.5 hours, you’ll lose less fat and waste more muscle than if you slept 8.5 hours a night. When you waste muscle, your metabolic rate lowers, and you burn less fat. It’s essential to build muscle mass if you want to reduce body fat.
The researchers also commented that insufficient sleep promotes the retention of fat in your body after you’ve eaten too much at a meal. The increased secretion of hunger hormones caused by too little sleep, along with too much of a drop in calories, promotes weight gain, especially once you stop dieting and restart your habitual eating patterns. Put simply, cutting calories too much and sleeping too little is a recipe for weight gain.
Late to bed causes carb cravings

Previous research (2) has demonstrated that limited sleep increases hunger for carbohydrate foods (which typically include unhealthy choices such as candy, juices, breads, pasta, and soda), because they give the brain a quick-release supply of glucose.
When you go to bed late or don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to crave carbs the next day, specifically sweet carbs, because your body knows that the taste is pleasurable, and that they provide a fast release of energy to keep the brain topped up with glucose. 

Unfortunately, the fast release of energy leads to insulin problems and diabetes, dysregulated adrenal hormone levels, and eventually increased storage of fat, especially around the waist.
Something to consider
You now know that how long you sleep for affects the success of your nutritional habits if you want to lose weight. How long you sleep for therefore also affects the results you'll get from your exercise. If you're eating healthily and working out, you need to sleep long enough overnight to allow your muscle to repair itself and get stronger, which boosts your metabolic rate, and speeds the rate at which you burn calories. The length of sleep and also the time you go to bed also make a huge difference to the results you get. Please share a link to this article on Facebook or another social media site - this information can help others.
If you would like to have more control over your health and body shape, and feel less tense about them, hire James Williams as your health, wellness, and life coach. Contact James to arrange your free consultation at: (678) 310-5789 or email FreeSpiritLifeCoaching@gmail. com
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