Shreduary Post #8 - Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important components of weight loss, particularly when you are on a low carb, calorie restricted diet like we are. When you burn the way we burn, your body needs to work extra hard to recover. The good news is that we continue to burn calories when doing, that is why when we kill it in the gym with HIIT, circuit training, and supersets we see really great weight loss. But when we work that hard we have to give our bodies a break. Lots of important things happen when we sleep and it is important to get enough of it and not to compensate for lack of sleep with stimulants which will cause more stress on your body, producing more cortisol and ultimately slow or stop your weight loss. You should be trying to get at least 7 hours of sleep, if you are early in your journey really 8 or 9 would be even better.

The following is from an article from WebMD that suggests that lack of sleep can actually cause us to gain weight, now this is for people with normal stomachs and a traditional diet, however if they can gain weight from lack of sleep, we can certainly slow down or stop our progress with lack of sleep.

“It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly,” explains Michael Breus, PhD, author ofBeauty Sleepand the clinical director of the sleep division for Arrowhead Health in Glendale, Ariz.

On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night, he says. “If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you will start dropping weight.”

The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. “Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin,” Breus says. “Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.”

The article goes on to suggest some things you can do to improve your sleep. If you had sleep apnea before surgery and are looking to get off your CPAP or BiPAP, you will get there, but do not ru**** I used it for about 6 months post-op and I still snore a little bit but not like I used to. Give it its due time.

Here is the whole article:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10 /lack-of-sleep-weight-gain

this makes so much sense. Every couple of weeks I have a couple of days where I'm very tired and sleep a lot. Then my energy level jumps back up and I'm good for a couple weeks. I also drop several # after the extra sleep. Rest is very important. I also still use my c-pap at night. I sleep so much better.

thanks for this post.