Weight loss and Sleep

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sheldonklein
sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've noticed several posters mentioning lack of sleep as a negative factor in weight loss. Is there a demonstrated linkage? If so, what's the casual mechanism? I'm skeptical, but I'm open to persuasion.

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  • tiptoethruthetulips
    tiptoethruthetulips Posts: 3,363 Member
    edited August 2015
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    Here is one article I found, I am pretty sure if you did some searching on the web you'd find plenty more.

    http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062

    Conclusion

    Participants with short sleep had reduced leptin and elevated ghrelin. These differences in leptin and ghrelin are likely to increase appetite, possibly explaining the increased BMI observed with short sleep duration. In Western societies, where chronic sleep restriction is common and food is widely available, changes in appetite regulatory hormones with sleep curtailment may contribute to obesity.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    For me personally, on a completely anecdotal level, when I have less sleep, I have reduced willpower and stronger cravings for energy dense food presumably due to wanting a quick burst of energy.
  • sheldonklein
    sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
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    Tiptoe - interesting study. Thank you.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    When I'm tired, I tend to eat more. I don't know the underlying cause, but I would guess that it is because eating makes me feel better and it gives me something that is easy to focus my mind on when I can't seem to focus it on anything else. On top of that, if I'm physically tired, it makes it harder to exercise, so there are fewer calories burned.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited August 2015
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    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21892668
    CONCLUSION:
    Short sleep (≤5 h) is significantly associated with weight gain and obesity in both male and female adults.

    I'm sure you can even find some studies that say it doesn't effect it at all.
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 645 Member
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    I believe the casual mechanism is related to human growth hormone which is optimally released while we sleep sufficiently. Human growth hormone helps with recovery and cell turnover. building new cells is that metabolic edge that we all strive for...nutrients go towards creating new blood and tissue rather than energy for cell metabolism.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
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    Various hormonal effects, overall increased stress, fewer willpower resources = problems
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    girlviernes wrote: »
    Various hormonal effects, overall increased stress, fewer willpower resources = problems

    ^ basically that ^
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
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    The role of sleep in the regulation of body weight:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26123586

    The role of sleep duration . . .
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23319909

    A quick keyword search on pubmed.gov, a database that indexes thousands of peer-reviewed medical journals, gave me over 7000 results. "sleep AND obesity" is a good start.
    Many articles related to sleep apnea and obesity, but there is a correlation between excess body weight and too little or too much sleep (More than 9 hours, fewer than 7)
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    I know I lose more when I sleep more and it's not really tied to intake. I don't know if this has been (or even can be) studied well enough to demonstrate it beyond a shadow of a doubt. They'd have to watch people 24 hours a day for long periods of time, totaling all the calories and adjusting the sleep levels. Short of constant observation, you have to rely on people to tell you the truth and some of those people are going to lie.

    I feel better when I get enough sleep and generally have better workouts, too. However, there have been days where I knew I'd be tired during my workout because I hadn't slept or eaten enough and then the workout turned out fine. There have also been times when I had eaten great and slept fine for days and I was tired and punked out on my workout. I've learned that I cannot predict how a workout will go.
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    One of the biggest things that has helped with weight loss is being self aware. If you see a bunch of studies that say something....something like not enough sleep leads to increased obesity, and it lists reasons why. See if you can see your body reacting the same way.

    "Participants with short sleep had reduced leptin and elevated ghrelin. These differences in leptin and ghrelin are likely to increase appetite."

    I don't know about anyone else. When I'm constantly tired I get more frustrated. When I get frustrated I'm more likely to say "Screw it! I'm skipping my workout, or I'm having that beer, or I don't have the energy to cook lets order pizza." When you're tired your will power recedes and you tend to turn into electricity and take the easiest path possible to what in your mind will make you feel better.

    In this case, peer reviewed studies say lack of sleep contributes to obesity, I can see said situation playing out in my own life, so therefore..FACT: Lack of sleep makes it more difficult to be healthy.

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