If I'm up and active longer do I need more calories?

robbda

Quick one..

I work full time 8am - 5:30pm with an hour and a half commute on top and then at least once a week I have a cake delivery (i make them not eat them!) and I get home from work about 7pm and go straight into decoration mode (i've normally baked and made bits that I can during the other week day evenings) I hit the sack about 1:30am and then i'm back up a 4am to finish the cake off to ensure its as fresh as can be, deliver and go straight to work for 8am to do a full day...

If i'm only having 2.5 hours sleep will this effect my calorie need? do i need to eat more on those days? is doing 18 hour days back to back once a week messing up my chance of consistantly loosing weight?

dietstokes

I dont know if you need more calories, but research has shown that on the days you get less sleep, you will feel hungrier. I've always been told to ignore those hunger signals, as they are false. Even if its just once a week though, that is a lot of extra stress on your body. Be careful.

MaximalLife

I dont know if you need more calories, but research has shown that on the days you get less sleep, you will feel hungrier. I've always been told to ignore those hunger signals, as they are false. Even if its just once a week though, that is a lot of extra stress on your body. Be careful.

^^^^^^^^^
THIS!

lacewitch

If you are only getting 2.5 hrs sleep be very careful. Sleep helps body repair and renew. If you are not getting enough the body will struggle to work right and may not do things as efficiently so even though you are doing more you may struggle with weight loss.
I've linked to 3 articles by non commercial research about this. However I would eat as healthily as you can log normal calories and try to do light exercises to keep you metabolism up and keep going ( regular snacks so you can't get blood sugar slumps may help as it will help to keep your body ticking over despite lack of sleep

good luck


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

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/lose-weight-while-sleeping

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/03March/Pages/sleep-and-weight-loss.aspx

Bronx_Montgomery

^^ Agree with both comments above. You need to give your body more time to sleep or its not going to do its job especially with weight loss.

SparksFly460

2-3 times a week I am up for OVER 20 hours (sometimes a full 24) and other days I'm up for an average of 16 hours...I try to eat ~1500 NET regardless of how much sleep I get, however....

Logically if you're awake longer, you're moving around more & burning more calories. I did a trial & error with this. Eating a bit more on my 20+ hour stints and less on shorter days. It just wasn't happening. Sticking to an average intake has been working for me although there are nights that I eat a bit extra if I'm super hungry.

As you probably noticed, the less sleep you get....the more stubborn weight loss is. Best of luck!

robbda

Thanks everyone, unfortunatley needs must to pay the bills, I have noticed weeks where I have a cake order I loose less or not at all and I wondered if it was because I needed more calories but I'll take on board the Tiredness halting weightloss and i'll read those articles!

Thanks again!