The Surprising Link Between a Good Night's Sleep and Weight Loss

If you're trying to lose weight, chances are you've already made changes to your diet and your exercise routine.
But there's another lifestyle change that you need to make, and one you might not expect. A new study finds there appears to be a connection between sleep and weight loss - those who slept less than 6 hours a night (short sleepers) tended to be heavier than those who got more sleep.

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Though the work was small, involving only 14 nurses, it analyzed the sleep, activity and energy levels of the volunteer subjects who were part of a heart health initiative known as the Integrative Cardiac Health Project.

As part of the program the participants received counseling on nutrition, exercise training, stress management and improving sleep. The nurses also wore special armbands that measured how active they were, their body position and other indicators of activity and rest.

When the data was analyzed by splitting the subjects into 'short sleepers' and 'long sleepers', the results showed that short sleepers tended to have a higher BMI, 28.3 kg/m2, compared to long sleepers, who had an average BMI of 24.5.

Short sleepers also had lower sleep efficiency, experienced as greater difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep," explains lead investigator Arn Eliasson, M.D.

A normal BMI measurement falls between 18.5-24.9, while BMI of 25.0-29.9 is considered overweight, a BMI of 30.0 or over falls into the obese category. You can find out where you stand by using one of the many handy online BMI calculators.

What's interesting is that overweight participants were more active than the normal weight subjects in the study, taking an average of 13,896 steps a day vs. 11,292 for the normal weight women. That's almost a 25% difference. The overweight subjects also burned 1,000 more calories a day (3,064 vs. 2,080) than the normal weight subjects.

The trouble is all that extra energy expenditure didn't show itself on the scale. Which left the team wondering if sleep might somehow have a part to play in weight loss.

For now, no one is sure why sleep might impact weight, but there are some interesting theories.

Lack of sleep might throw off natural hormone balances (leptin, the satiety hormone for example) that would then trigger overeating.

Lack of sleep also is known to make our bodies more ready, and willing, to store fat. And since your body works best when it is well rested and fully recharged, lack of restorative sleep can keep you from having the energy for workouts.

What's more, too little sleep makes handling everyday stress, stuff like flat tires and lost lunches, that much more of a challenge. Little things make you crazy and your fuse is shorter, so you're more likely to reach for comforting, calorie laden foods as a way to cope.

Experts also know that stress can start a chain of biochemical processes - storing fuel, slowing down metabolism and releasing chemicals like cortisol, leptin and other hormones linked to obesity. All reasons why the research team is planning to continue to work to try and uncover the potential connection between sleep and weight loss.

Next just head on over to Resurge official website for more information on the link between sleep and weight loss.

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