Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme

1-677-124-44227

184 MAIN COLLINS STREET WEST VICTORIA 8007

Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies

Winston-Salem, NC

(919) 426-1671

2345 Griffith Rd

Winston-Salem, NC 27103

Top

Blog

7 Reasons You Need Sleep To Lose Fat

You mean sleep is important?

I hope this catches no one by surprise, but yes, sleep is extremely important. Now I won’t lie, for the most part I’ve been extremely blessed in my ability to sleep. Ask my wife, when my head hits the pillow I’m pretty much done.  Maybe, I have an issue with being able to sleep too easily.

If the clock is anywhere near 8:30 PM and I am not actively doing something. I’m asleep. I just can’t help myself. I try to stay awake, but if there’s a movie on or we are trying to watch TV my butt falls asleep at the blink of an eye.

 

I hear it and see it so often. People spend to $200 to $400 dollars on supplements, and on vitamins, that will make them “recover faster” and “feel” better. But the fact is, all they really need to do is get more sleep.

 

I get asked quite often, what’s the best protein, what’s the best pre-workout, here is my answer sleep. Okay, so that’s just partially true. Sleep is much more important the amount of protein you consume and it’s definitely more important than what your pre-workout supplement is. If you don’t sleep, your body won’t recover. You know that sluggish, exhausted feeling you feel everyday? That’s generally because you can’t get to sleep and you don’t sleep well.

 

Sleeping well is something I do struggle with. It is extremely common for me to wake up 10 to 15 times a night. I didn’t know that was a problem until much later in life. But truthfully, I’m so used to it, it doesn’t bug me and I honestly don’t think it affects how I feel and how I perform. Maybe that means I’m in denial and delusional. Regardless, sleep is important. And Below are 7 reasons why you need sleep to look and feel better and lose some extra fat.

 

The Great 7 Reason You Need Sleep!

  1. Lack of sleep reduces the benefits of dieting. I’m sure that came as a shocker! Yes, cutting back on sleep reduces the benefits of dieting. You don’t have to take my word for it according to a study published on October 5, 2010, (Annals of Internal Medicine). What the study discovered is that when dieters got a full night’s sleep (7 – 8 hours) they lost more fat. To break it down even further, half the weight they lost was fat, super awesome right! However…when they cut back on their sleep, those same people only lost a fourth of their weight from fat. That my friends is super bad.  In short, this means if you don’t get enough sleep you won’t lose as much fat and the weight you do lose is going to be more muscle. Which also means your metabolism is going to go down, making it harder to lose more fat. This may be the ultimate lose-lose in the history of weight loss.
  2. Lack of sleep makes you hungrier. I’m sure you’ve experienced this before. You’re up late working or watching a movie and you just get the munchies.  This is because people who are sleep deprived produce higher levels of ghrelin, no this is not the name of some gremlin. Ghrelin is actually a hormone that triggers hunger and slows down your metabolism. Ghrelin’s job is to signal your brain that it’s time to eat. When you’re sleep-deprived, your body makes more ghrelin, which means you will be hungrier and the chances of you overeating goes up a lot. Plus, it affects your leptin levels. Leptin is responsible for telling your body you are full. In Kellen speak that means, “Dude, put the fork down.” So, When you’re not getting enough sleep, your leptin levels plummet, which enables your “brain” to eat more food.
  3. Lack of sleep makes you crave sugar. I talked about this before, if you are sleep  deprived you are much more likely to eat high-calorie, high-fat, sugary foods. And as I stated before, the more high fat, high calorie, sugary foods you consume the more you want them. It’s an addictive little cycle which also links back to your leptin and ghrelin hormones.
  4. Lack of sleep slows down your metabolism. Plus, ff you don’t get your beauty rest it will negatively affect your bodies ability to burn calories. When you are sleep deprived your body has to work much harder to process carbs and use them for energy. As a result, your body will act like your kids when they have chores, they will take the easy way out and slow way down until you do it yourself. In short, your metabolic capacity, the amount of calories your body will burn, takes a big hit and greatly decreases..
  5. Lack of sleep causes your cortisol to spike. This stress hormone, cortisol, signals your body to conserve energy. This means instead of burning calories, your body is trying to store calories and it chooses to store those calories as fat. Huge frowning face :-(.
  6. Lack of sleep changes your fat cells. Sleep deprivation makes your fat cells “metabolically groggy,” (This comes from the University of Chicago). After four days of poor sleeping, your body’s ability to process insulin goes awry. Insulin sensitivity, the researchers found, dropped by more than 30%. That’s bad news because when your body doesn’t respond properly to insulin, your body has trouble processing fats from your bloodstream (“the grogginess”), so it ends up storing them as fat. Another :-(.
  7. Lastly, sleep sabotages your workouts. It’s hard to give 100% when you are sleep deprived. This means you are leaving some gas (calories/fat) in the tank (hips/tummy). Don’t cheat yourself and make this harder then it is already.

 

As you can see, it’s not so much that if you sleep, you’ll lose weight, but that too little sleep hampers your metabolism and behaviors that contribute to unwanted weight gain. Successful, long-term weight loss means finding a sleep schedule that makes you feel energized and ready to take on the day.

And one of the top recommendations to help you sleep is…exercise!

Help me, help you :-). Sign-up for a free session, https://winstonsalem.justyoufitness.com/ , and start sleeping and feeling better today…or a guess tomorrow…actually, I guess it would depend on when you start.

Regardless, go be awesome!

KELLEN LAKE – Let me be your sleep numbered Coach 🙂

PS – Have any questions? Let me know, email, call, or text (919) 426-1671

[gravityform id=”4″ title=”true” description=”true”]

Share