Sleep and Weight Loss

Numerous clinical studies have repeatedly shown that decreasing hours of quality sleep are associated with an increasing desire for larger food portions and increased quantities of high carbohydrate/high refined sugar snacks and drinks. A new research study shows evidence linking the lack of sleep to an increase in abdominal obesity and visceral, belly, fat. Specifically, it was reported that the expansion of abdominal fat tissue occurred as a function of the amount of sleep that one gets each night. Less sleep, taken to mean less than 4 hours a night, resulted in sleep deprived subjects gaining about 1 pound per week. It is thought that this weight gain is the result of sleep deprivation stimulating the stomach to produce more of the hunger hormone Ghrelin which increases the desire for foods containing carbohydrates and refined sugars. Patients who had less sleep ate about 300 more calories per day than did those who had adequate sleep. It appears that repetitive episodes of inadequate sleep actually accumulate over the years to cause increased eating of foods high in carbohydrates to produce an increase in abdominal fat. And it is this kind of fat that is linked to the generation of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. So sleep well.

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