SLEEP DEPRIVATION CAUSES WEIGHT GAIN!

Could lack of sleep causes you to gain weight? Yes and why?

This is because you will automatically go for comfort food when you are restless.

Diagram 1: example of comfort food

Think about it: If you are feeling sleepy at work, you may be tempted to reach for a cup of coffee (or even several cups) and a doughnut for a quick shot of energy. Later you may skip the gym and went to a fast food restaurant just to settle your dinner as you have no time to cook. When you finally find yourself back in your bed, you are too wound up to sleep.

It is a vicious cycle, and eventually this sleep deprivation can sabotage your waistline and your health.

When you have sleep deprivation and are running on low energy, you automatically go for a bag of potato chips or other comfort foods.

The immediate result? You may be able to fight off sleepiness. The ultimate result? Unwanted pounds as poor food choices coupled with lack of exercise set the stage for obesity and further sleep loss.

How to know whether are you suffering from sleep deprivation? The symptoms are such as feeling tired or drowsy at any time during the day or being able to fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down in the evening.

If you did not get to rest well at night, the organ in the body will not get to activate the recovery process. Therefore, the toxins in the body will not be secreted but only accumulated in the body. You will eventually gain weight especially when you consume the comfort food which consists of high amount of sugar, because those sugar will deposit in the adipose tissue and consequently causes your body weight to increase.

Furthermore, lack of sleeps will make you feel restless. When you are fatigue, you will generally move slower. You will also feel unmotivated at most of the time. Therefore, it affects your work performance. This may lead you to stress.

By eating comfort food or sugary food, it will not help you to release stress. Studies show that eating sweet food no longer can make a person happy. Sugar can't de-stress anymore but cause distress.

It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will drop and not function properly.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggests that most average adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Exactly how lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones.  Two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin (Refer to the diagram 2 below).

 

Diagram 2

Ghrelin increases, appetite increases.

Leptin increases, appetite decreases

Ghrelin

A hunger-stimulating hormone that appears to be a stimulant for appetite and feeding. Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin.

Leptin

A protein produced by fatty tissue which is believed to regulate fat storage in the body. Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.

How to control these hormones? By eating solid proteins, such as lean meats and nuts in your meals, you stay satisfied longer. Eat simple sugars, and you will be spiking ghrelin. Experts recommend you to keep an emergency stash of safe foods such as vegetable juice, a handful of nuts, cut-up fruit and vegetables so that you can keep the hunger at bay.

In conclusion, poor quality of sleep may result in weight gaining. It could also leads to high blood pressure, diabetes and eventually increase the chances of having a stroke or heart attack. Prevention is better than cure. Get enough sleep to prevent unnecessary health issues.

 

Couldn't rest well at night due to the fast pace of life in the city? Read this! http://dailyburn.com/life/lifestyle/cant-sleep-tips/