When losing weight, you would think of exercise and workout or a diet, right? So you try to do healthy things like going for a run. But when you step on that weighing scale, nothing is happening??
We bet you didn’t even cross your mind that sleeping helps you lose weight. Losing weight is not just doing exercise or just doing a diet. It’s about being healthy, and that means a too!
How Sleep Can Help You Lose Weight
Wondering how sleeping can help you lose weight? Here’s how:
No midnight snacking.
When you’re awake at night and losing sleep, you’re likely to go hungry. That means you’ll go snacking on whatever is on the pantry—noodles, chips, chocolate. And since you’re likely to start getting sleepy afterward, all that carbs would just add up to the one you’re trying to lose.
In other words, being awake longer gives you more chances or opportunities to eat.
You’d have the energy to move in the morning.
When you complete a healthy sleep, you’re energized and ready for the day. You would have a bounce in your step, a straighter posture. You move your body more, and thus you would be “burning calories.”
When you’re sleep-deprived, you would feel sluggish in the morning. Dragging your feet and heavy chest— you’re too tired to move.
It can help you feel full.
Lack of sleep affects the hormones in your body that control appetite. The hormones leptin and ghrelin help regulate hunger and appetite. Leptin decreases cravings and appetite, while ghrelin triggers hunger. When you lose sleep, the hormone ghrelin spikes up, making you feel hungry.
So when you sleep a night’s rest, you won’t have an imbalance of these two. This makes you eat less than you have to.
You burn calories when you sleep.
Yes! You read it right. Calories do burn when you sleep. Dr. Michael Braus, the author of “The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep,” says so. How much, you say?
A regular full night’s rest, somewhere between 7 and 9 hours, says that you burn more calories than on an average day. Glucose metabolism, the breakdown of sugar, increases when you are in your REM sleep.
As you may have noticed, we emphasized the words– full night’s rest. This is because this can happen only if you get quality sleep, and your bedding will play a great role in helping you achieve it. If you’re on the heavy side, make sure to invest in a mattress for heavier sleepers so you can get the support you need, and enjoy a good night’s sleep.
So if you sleep longer, you burn more. And you didn’t have to work for it! But you can’t just sleep all day. Oversleeping does the opposite. Your body thinks that since you’re not doing anything, they have to conserve energy. They slow down your metabolism as an effect.
You are more focused when you sleep
What’s that got to do with weight? When your brain is tired, your thoughts are jumbled, and your work piles up, you get stressed. What do people do when they’re stressed? Stress eat; that’s what.
We’ve already hinted that there is a relationship between sleep and hunger (see no. 3). When you’re sleep-deprived, your brain’s motivation centers lock on food. And not just any food. There are articles and research papers that say that the sleep-deprived crave food that gives rise to weight gain. (Ahem sweet and salty ahem!)
Final Thoughts
Now you know 5 things sleep can help you lose weight. Regular sleeping keeps your body in tip-top shape. It replenishes the energy that you need for the day, makes your brain function efficiently, and it helps you lose weight!
So if you’re on the fence about whether you should stay late or sleep, the answer is always sleeping!
