Many of us might not give a whole lot of thought to the amount of sleep we get or whether we are getting enough. Many are in a pattern of getting by on little sleep. Insufficient sleep can have several negative effects on our health, including our weight loss efforts.
There are so many factors to consider when it comes to weight loss, and sleep may be one of those that we tend to overlook. Not too long ago I paid no mind to the amount of sleep I was getting and I was oblivious to how it was affecting my weight loss efforts. I have since learned that failing to get enough sleep and not having good sleep habits can counter your weight loss efforts. A few of the effects of insufficient sleep are:
- Increased appetite.
- Hormonal changes resulting in weight gain.
- Physical performance/exercise.
- Decreases exercise.
Up until a couple of years ago, I didn’t really think too much about whether I was getting enough sleep and I certainly didn’t have good sleep habits. I am naturally a night owl. I’ve never been much of a morning person. I tend to be slow to wake up and seem to get a burst of energy around bedtime. If I had my way, I’d be up until midnight or later and get up around nine or ten every morning. It’s been this way as long as I can remember.
Once I had kids, I struggled to make myself go to bed earlier even more. When the kids were finally in bed for the night it was my time to myself. I could finally watch something besides cartoons and kids’ shows. I cherished this time so much sometimes I wouldn’t get to bed until midnight, even though I had to get up early to get to work on time. This meant I was often operating on about five to six hours of sleep at the most. I never thought much of it. I was used to it. As I re-established my exercise routine, I continued with this for a few years, until I learned about the ways sleep can affect weight loss, among other things.
Many of us have probably heard that the recommended amount of sleep is generally about eight hours a night. However, I’d venture to say most people don’t get this much sleep. I know plenty of people, and I used to be one of them, who would rather binge Netflix shows than catch that extra shut eye. And, when you adapt to it and feel seemingly fine, it doesn’t occur to you to change it.
While it may not seem like a big deal, that routine of five to six hours of sleep may be contributing to your struggle to lose weight. Here are some of the reasons why.
- Increased appetite.
Many different studies have shown how insufficient sleep affects appetite. Insufficient sleep is generally defined as any amount of sleep less than 5 ½ hours. Based on research on sleep, it appears that lack of sleep results in an increase in appetite, with people who don’t get enough sleep consuming up to 500 extra calories a day. Studies also show that people tend to overconsume fat, suggesting lack sleep may cause cravings for fattier foods as well as increasing appetite. - Hormonal changes resulting in weight gain.
Lack of sleep also affects hormones. This includes those that regulate our appetite, which is why lack of sleep results in increased appetite. Research has also shown insufficient sleep affects when we are eating and basically disrupts consistent meal times, which can throw our brain off. It can also affect the body’s metabolism. For example, some studies have shown that people lose less weight when dieting, if they are getting less than 5 ½ hours of sleep a night, compared to people who are getting 8 hours of sleep a night. - Physical performance in exercise.
Insufficient sleep affects your ability to exercise and can render your efforts futile. It may seem obvious, but when you don’t have enough sleep you cannot perform exercises well. Lack of sleep decreases muscular power and endurance. Continually working out with insufficient sleep can cause stress to the body as well, resulting in resistance to weight loss. Basically, it starts to affect hormones involved with metabolism and weight loss, making it much more difficult to lose weight and could stall it completely. - Decreases exercise.
Lack of sleep will make you less likely to exercise. This is another one that may seem obvious, but if you aren’t getting enough sleep, you aren’t going to have enough energy to exercise. It also affects your motivation to exercise and leads you to skip it more often if not completely. This creates a vicious cycle because exercise improves sleep; so, when you continue to get insufficient sleep it just makes it harder to get going with an exercise routine and makes establishing it harder in the beginning as you will have to work to reverse the effects of lack of sleep.
So, these are some of the ways insufficient sleep affects our weight loss efforts. It serves as a good reminder to get enough sleep, which means at least seven hours a night. Good ways to do this are to establish a consistent bed time, ideally no later than 10 PM and a consistent wake up time. Like all other things health and wellness, consistency is the secret sauce.
I hope you found this helpful. I would love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments. If you want to continue the pursuit of faith, fitness, and joy with me, please like and subscribe. You can also find Faith Fitness Joy on Facebook and Instagram or check out the podcast at https://faithfitnessjoy.podbean.com. Thanks for listening and I hope to see you in the comments and on the socials!