It’s true, not getting enough hours in bed (anywhere between 7 & 10 depending on your lifestyle, activity levels, and genetics) or having a regular poor quality nights sleep, cannot only stall your fat loss results but even make you gain some…
Having one or two late nights a week generally leads to you awaking, hunting down your first large coffee, giving any physical activity a miss, sorry body no gym today, and ordering takeaway because it’s just so damn easier.
Now a few days out of the year like this might seem ok, but the problem is, most of us live like this week to week and we don’t quite realise that it is cooking up the perfect recipe for putting on fat…
And here’s why!
Being overtired from either late night or a poor quality sleep really sets you up for a day of bad decision making.
Being overtired dulls the activity in the frontal lobe of the brain which is known to impair one’s ability to think and make choices.
So it’s almost like being a little bit drunk, you don’t have the mental clarity to make the right decisions, especially when it comes to food.
Not only that, but it has a tendency to awaken our brain’s reward centre which sends us hunting for anything that is going to make us feel good, which usually ends in us consuming sugary or fatty foods.
There also lies one more major issue that can occur to us as a result of being run down.
Lack of sleep affects several hormones and metabolic processes in the body. Studies have shown that just a week of sleep deprivation can cause significant alterations in glucose tolerance (i.e. how readily your body’s cells can recognise glucose floating around in your blood and pull it into the cells of the body where it will fuel activity).
When your body doesn’t uptake glucose into the cell efficiently, you feel tired and hungry more often than you should, which makes you reach for more food, resulting in a calorie surplus. Now keep in mind, your body is already not using this glucose well…
So guess what happens to them? Spot on. They get stored away !!!!
So in the long run, it is not so much that if you sleep more you’ll lose weight. It is more so that too little impacts your self-control, reeks havoc on your bodies ability to use the calories you consume efficiently, therefore, can contribute to fat gain!
So when we talk about getting a good nights sleep, regularly, it is in your best interest to do so to ensure you achieve the desired fat loss results you are working so hard for!
So how can you improve your sleep quality ?
- Aim to be going to bed at the same time of night and waking at the same time of day as often as possible.
- Try to sleep in the most natural setting possible with little to no artificial light.
- Fresh air and cooler temperatures can help improve quality of sleep.
- Supplement magnesium with your last meal of the day
- No electronic devices an hour before bed
- Read a book whilst laying in bed preparing to sleep
- Use apps such as headspace to settle the mind
Implementing some of these simple strategies along with following a structure training and nutrition plan will ensure you get the fat loss results you deserve!
Best Regards
D.B