Lose Weight While You Sleep

Lose Weight While You Sleep

Did you know that insufficient sleep is seen to be directly associated with weight gain and obesity?   

So before you pay for that new gym membership to start off your 2020.   Consider giving yourself permission to sleep and commit some time and energy to improving your sleep quantity and quality by making some changes.

I am thinking if you are like me you have probably been enjoying the festive season and staying up later.  This can have a significant impact on our circadian rhythm / sleep cycle.

Disruption to this system and lack of sleep can affect our caloric intake and increase consumption of unhealthy foods.  Alterations in appetite regulation can also affect our hormone production and regulation  while promoting weight gain.1,2.

Following is a full list of effects of short sleep duration compiled from Bioconcepts Research.

Short sleep duration in humans has been shown to: 3

• Shift the balance of reward and impulse control toward enhanced reward and impaired executive functioning and impulse control

• Increase stress and activate the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis

• Decrease leptin levels

• Increase ghrelin levels

• Decrease Glucagon-like peptide-1 levels

• Increase the opportunity to eat

• Delay and enhance the endocannabinoid signaling pathway

Each of these pathways has been shown to increase food intake in human study participants.3

Additionally, while an unhealthy diet, obesity and poor sleep appear to be a vicious cycle, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis concluded short sleep as a causal factor driving obesity risk.4

It also doesn’t hurt to hydrate well, eat your greens, move your body, plan your meals, track your symptoms, snack smart, remove sugary triggers from your pantry and solidify your new health routine commitments with a friend. But perhaps getting your 7-8 hours of sleep a night could be a more relaxing approach to your new year and could prove to be a more effective weight loss tool in the long run.

If you are struggling with sleep here are some helpful tips to get you started.

Love Thy Health ARTICLE: Good sleep & How to Get it.

Make a time to see me to support you to find a cause for your sleep issues. To discuss herbal and supplemental interventions to support better sleep quality and quantity.

Christine Carley is a bachelor qualified naturopath, with a focus on women’s health and wellness. She passionately supports her clients with, fertility and IVF optimisation, menopause and hormonal health as well as gut health. She spent most of her early clinical practice working with people with chronic and complex autoimmune condition, whilst working in a clinic with cardiologist, psychologists, podiatrist and allied health professionals. She loves assisting those stress, anxiety, fatigue and sleep. She is a passionate health ambassador who takes a holistic, person centred approach to the wellness model of health.

Book an appointment or free online discovery call here: LOVE THY HEALTH or call 0409027221

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References

1. Isaac Smith, Katherine Saed, M.-P. S.-O. Sleep and food intake. in Sleep and Health (ed. Grandner, M. A.) 243–255 (Elsevier, 2019).

2. Kelly Glazer Baron, E. C. Sleep and healthy decision making. in Sleep and Health (ed. Grandner, M. A.) 359–369 (Elsevier, 2019).

3. Spaeth, A. M. Insufficient sleep and obesity. in Sleep and Health (ed. Grandner, M. A.) 189–201 (Elsevier, 2019).

4. Patrice L. Capers, Aaron D. Fobian, Kathryn A. Kaiser, Rohit Borah, and D. & B.Allison. A systematic Review and meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials of the impact of Sleep Duration on ADiposity and Components of Energy Balance. Obes. Rev. 9, 771–782 (2015).