Not another diet plan!! How many times and ways have you tried to lose weight? Well, get ready for some shut-eye when you hear how sleep and weight loss are connected.
According to Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, a board certified internist and medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, the number of hours needed to stay thin is between seven and nine hours. Less than seven hours increases the risk of obesity by approximately 30% and adds an extra five pounds on average. Whoa.
Over the past forty years daily sleep duration has decreased by 1.5 to 2 hours and the proportion of young adults sleeping less than seven hours per night has gone from 15.6% in 1960 to 37.1% in 2002. In a six-year long study in Quebec, researchers followed 276 adults between the ages of 21 and 64. Scientists compared weight gain relative to sleep deprivation: short (5-6 hours), average (7-8 hours) and long (9-10 hours).
What they found was that short and long duration sleepers were more likely to gain weight; short duration sleepers were 35% more likely and long duration sleepers were 25% more likely to gain 12 pounds as compared to those who slept an average amount (8 hours) a night.
At WebMD, Dr. Michael Breus, a sleep specialist, says two nightly hormones (Leptin and Ghrelin) affect our appetite. Leptin slows your desire for food while Ghrelin increases your appetite. Without seven to eight hours of sleep, your body produces more Ghrelin, making your body crave more food. Also, not getting enough sleep slows our metabolism and you’ll be more likely to choose sugary food over healthy food when you are awake.
Pretty interesting.
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