Sleep an important factor for weight loss! I am sure most of us have heard about this but wonder how lack of sleep could make our weight loss journey difficult.
When you don’t get enough sleep, how do you feel? Tired? Groggy? This is not just the state of your mind and body but also of your fat cells. The fat cells become slow and their ability to use the insulin is reduced. Insulin sensitivity is also reduced. Insulin in normal condition helps fat cells to remove the fatty acids and lipids from the blood stream but when the body is sleep deprived it becomes insulin resistant causing the fats to circulate in the blood and causing more insulin, the insulin causes fat storage thus leading to weight gain.
Sleep deprivation affects the hormones which affect hunger and appetite . Grehlin ad Leptin. When you are sleep derived the production of hormone leptin is reduced which has a role of suppressing appetite and boost energy production. On the other hand sleep deprivation causes increase in hormone grehlin which triggers feelings of hunger.
Sleep deprivation makes your brain make wrong choices and crave for more fat and sugar laden foods.
Lack of sleep increases the production of hormone Cortisol thereby triggering the reward centres in the brain to want more food.
So the next time you are struggling to lose weight and don’t know why as your diet and exercise are in place keep a check on your sleep as it is a key factor for weight loss.
Healthy weight loss has 3 main pillars:
- Healthy diet
- Regular exercise
- Refreshing sleep
A refreshing good night sleep will not only balance your hormones but will also leave you to make the right food choices and more active for a good exercise session.
So sleep well eat well and exercise well for a healthy you………..