Can you really slim down by sleeping more? Experts say lack of sleep produces food cravings.
For many people, insufficient sleep is so normal that their usual reply to "How are you?" is that they feel exhausted.
But a leading endocrinologist is now saying that lack of sleep isn't only making us function badly - it's making us fat as well.
The rise in obesity among adults could be down to sleep deprivation and not all caused by overeating or lack of exercise.
Now isn't that interesting? They did a bunch of studies on how much people sleep, how heavy they were and their metabolic rate and found out that the people who get a lot fewer than seven hours in the sack often end up obese.
In fact, the scientists say that your risk of obesity can be doubled if you don't get enough shuteye.
And people who get by on four hours are 75% more likely to put on too much weight, because sleep deprivation leads to food craving.
People who only get a little sleep can take in as many as 900 calories extra per day.
In addition to a regular diet, this could make you gain as much as 2 lbs.
per week.
They proved their theory by finding out the weight of the participants before they started losing hours of sleep each night and then looking at how much their weight had increased after they started to restrict their hours of sleep.
It showed that the participants didn't have weight problems before and their heaviness had increased when their sleep time decreased.
Apparently, not getting enough sleep affects the hormones that regulate appetite and you make more ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and less leptin, which tells you that your stomach is full.
The scientists believe that things will only get worse because over the past 50 years, our average amount of sleep has reduced from nine hours to seven and many people are sleeping only six hours or fewer.
Dr.
Michael Breus conducted an informal study for a U.
S.
magazine which asked a group of women to continue their regular eating and exercise habits, but to make sure that they got seven and a half hours sleep each night.
The results were surprising to the women because all of them had lost weight - between 3lb.
and 15lb.
This fun experiment has prompted a larger investigation into the effect that sleep hours can have on body weight.
So if you want to lose some weight - and who doesn't - you don't have to struggle with slimming diets and spend hours punishing yourself in the gym.
Just go to bed earlier and make sure you get eight good hours of rest!
For many people, insufficient sleep is so normal that their usual reply to "How are you?" is that they feel exhausted.
But a leading endocrinologist is now saying that lack of sleep isn't only making us function badly - it's making us fat as well.
The rise in obesity among adults could be down to sleep deprivation and not all caused by overeating or lack of exercise.
Now isn't that interesting? They did a bunch of studies on how much people sleep, how heavy they were and their metabolic rate and found out that the people who get a lot fewer than seven hours in the sack often end up obese.
In fact, the scientists say that your risk of obesity can be doubled if you don't get enough shuteye.
And people who get by on four hours are 75% more likely to put on too much weight, because sleep deprivation leads to food craving.
People who only get a little sleep can take in as many as 900 calories extra per day.
In addition to a regular diet, this could make you gain as much as 2 lbs.
per week.
They proved their theory by finding out the weight of the participants before they started losing hours of sleep each night and then looking at how much their weight had increased after they started to restrict their hours of sleep.
It showed that the participants didn't have weight problems before and their heaviness had increased when their sleep time decreased.
Apparently, not getting enough sleep affects the hormones that regulate appetite and you make more ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and less leptin, which tells you that your stomach is full.
The scientists believe that things will only get worse because over the past 50 years, our average amount of sleep has reduced from nine hours to seven and many people are sleeping only six hours or fewer.
Dr.
Michael Breus conducted an informal study for a U.
S.
magazine which asked a group of women to continue their regular eating and exercise habits, but to make sure that they got seven and a half hours sleep each night.
The results were surprising to the women because all of them had lost weight - between 3lb.
and 15lb.
This fun experiment has prompted a larger investigation into the effect that sleep hours can have on body weight.
So if you want to lose some weight - and who doesn't - you don't have to struggle with slimming diets and spend hours punishing yourself in the gym.
Just go to bed earlier and make sure you get eight good hours of rest!