Lack of sleep.

My own anecdotal evidence- when I'm sleepy, I feel ravenous and eat more than when I get the nine hours I know I need.

As lack of sleep causes my emotional state to spiral, I find myself a little hungrier than normal to make myself feel better. Seems like a big deal to me personally.

technically if you sleep less and move more you'd think you burn more cals, but I feel that long-term lack of sleep (my daughter is 4 and had various medical issues so she's really only started to sleep through in the last 6 months, before that I had to get up 2-3 times) causes you both to crave high sugar food and makes you more lethargic overall (thus burning less calories throughout the day overall)

I feel for you and it will get better, just hold on. Once my daughter started sleeping through and I got a couple of weeks of solid sleep, I actually found I had energy to go for a walk or go to aqua aerobics. I was less hungry and actually able to calorie count, before it just all seemed too much. :flowerforyou:

My own anecdotal evidence- when I'm sleepy, I feel ravenous and eat more than when I get the nine hours I know I need.

Me too. If I've learned anything during my weight loss and maintenance attempts, it's to treasure my sleep.

Want to say I experienced this yesterday - I was the appetite of an elephant and now I've had good sleep my appetite has gone back to normal...tip: get good sleep.

Personally for me, if I don't get between 6 and 8 hours of sleep, my scale goes up not down (I always weigh in the morning before eating or drinking anything). It's not by a whole lot and it happens regardless of how I did the day before (so I may have had a perfect day, logged everything, got some exercise and drank my gallon of water). I don't notice unusual hunger, and generally speaking I also do not experience a significant loss of energy (a little bit but not enough that I couldn't push through and workout).

Sleep is so critical for me and I'm pretty focused on getting at least 7 hrs most nights. The minimum amount varies from person to person. When you don't meet your minimum, it will stress your system. Losing weight or increasing your fitness level also stresses your system, as does work, family, money, etc.. In the end, there are only so many stressors at one time before our systems start getting out of balance. Getting enough sleep is something I can mostly schedule with a little focus and it helps me deal with the stressors that I cannot control and have enough capacity to work on losing weight and increasing my fitness level. When I lose control of my sleep, I do rapidly push myself out of balance and often lose the ability to focus on maintaining a calorie deficit or training. I watch it happen time and time again to my friends here too.

How much can this affect one's weight loss journey? Example: What if I haven't had more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep at a time in over a year? (My son was born December last year, and has some problems that interfere with sleep.)

Lack of sleep have a major effect on weight regulation.

The reasons are not entirely clear.

In a sleep deprived state the secretions of ghrelin increases while leptin decreases. "Leptin and ghrelin are two hormones that have been recognized to have a major influence on energy balance. Leptin is a mediator of long-term regulation of energy balance, suppressing food intake and thereby inducing weight loss. Ghrelin on the other hand is a fast-acting hormone, seemingly playing a role in meal initiation" (Obes Rev. 2007 Jan;8(1):21-34. The role of leptin and ghrelin in the regulation of food intake and body weight in humans: a review. Klok MD, Jakobsdottir S, Drent ML.)

Besides sleep loss affects the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. So if you don't sleep you may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake.

As a consequence sleep deprivation reduces energy expenditure: "In comparison with normal sleep, resting and postprandial energy expenditures assessed on the subsequent morning were significantly reduced after sleep deprivation by ≈5% and 20%, respectively" (Acute sleep deprivation reduces energy expenditure in healthy men http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/93/6/1229.abstract?sid=ee6e80cd-d844-4103-ade3-82d9b41b9357)

But there is more: sleep deprivation hinders the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar which in turns triggers the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance.

Sleep deprivation influences the amount of fat and fat free mass lost in a reduced-calorie diet (that is: if you diet and don't sleep enough you lose less fat and more LBM): "Sleep curtailment decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55% and increased the loss of fat-free body mass by 60%. This was accompanied by markers of enhanced neuroendocrine adaptation to caloric restriction, increased hunger, and a shift in relative substrate utilization toward oxidation of less fat." (Insufficient Sleep Undermines Dietary Efforts to Reduce Adiposity http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=746184).

As a final note I can offer my own anecdotal evidence: I have a 3 and 1/2 years old son who has trouble sleeping for various medical reasons - and when I say trouble I mean that he wakes up an average of 10 times each night, every night, so I have not slept for more than 5 hours since he was born (my wife and I still take turns). In this time frame I have gained a lot of weight but I am also losing it now, so it's possible to do it, only harder.

How is your energy level? If you're so tired you don't feel like doing a whole like then what would be bad.

And when you say four hours do you mean that's all you get in the whole day? Or like 4 hours then tend to the baby for an hour then back to bed? I think that's perfectly fine but if all you are getting is 4 hours total that's not good. If your body is chronically exhausted your metabolism may slow down