How does my body process calories when lacking sleep?

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Likichina
Likichina Posts: 50 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,

Might sound like a weird question but I'm running on no sleep at all due to work (I couldn't sleep from yesterday to today and I will probably only be able to go to bed around 10pm tonight) and all I can think of is how my body will "process" the food that I consume today. Since I had no sleep and I have been up since yesterday 8am, will my body process it as if I'm overeating from yesterday and not "counting" as if it was a new day? I'm not exactly sure how to phrase my question, I hope you understand it.

P.S.: I'm fully aware of how IMPORTANT sleep is for our physical and psychological health, I hate to have to jeopardize my deserved rest but I had no option. Believe me, I wish I could be snoring right now lol

Thank you in advance!

Replies

  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    Your body is going to process the food more or less the same whether you sleep or not. Your body doesn't count the days you are under/over. So, which day you log it in or not doesn't affect your body, only total calorie consumption over a period of time, which we can arbitrarily choose for the sake of measuring change.

    If your goal is to lose 1lb/week, then you want to average a 3500 calorie deficit over the entire week. How you log it doesn't matter. How you actually eat to create that deficit makes a small difference (mostly in the hunger department). If you stayed up from Tuesday morning into late Wednesday and log it (and ate it) such that you had no deficit on Tuesday and a 1000 calorie deficit on Wednesday your body doesn't really care too much. It has the systems needed to save energy and nutrients for when it needs it.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    Your body knows what to do. Its not going to count you as overeating. It just doesn't work that way.
  • Likichina
    Likichina Posts: 50 Member
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    @nordlead2005 Thank you so much for taking your time to answer, it helped me a lot! :)
  • Likichina
    Likichina Posts: 50 Member
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    @thorsmom01 Now that nordlead2005 explained it in a little more detail, it did feel like a stupid question, hahaha! Oh well, I'm still just a newbie regarding CICO.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    No , its not a stupid question at all !! No question is stupid . we have all been new once. We where not born with this knowledge so it takes time to learn .
    Cico is great, just don't over think it ( we all over think it when we are new lol )
    Just remember- eat less then you burn and you'll lose weight. We as modern humans keep track of 24 hr time to make our lives easier but your body isn't going to say, " she hasn't slept so I will count this 48 hr period as 24" your body will burn a certain number of calories just by being alive every day , it happens if we sleep or not. So don't worry about it.
    And get some rest!!! Lol !!!!!!! ( I know you said you wish you could sleep. I'm just joking with you )
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    A lot of people track weekly, rather than daily.
  • jarablue
    jarablue Posts: 127 Member
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    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    No , its not a stupid question at all !! No question is stupid . we have all been new once. We where not born with this knowledge so it takes time to learn .
    Cico is great, just don't over think it ( we all over think it when we are new lol )
    Just remember- eat less then you burn and you'll lose weight. We as modern humans keep track of 24 hr time to make our lives easier but your body isn't going to say, " she hasn't slept so I will count this 48 hr period as 24" your body will burn a certain number of calories just by being alive every day , it happens if we sleep or not. So don't worry about it.
    And get some rest!!! Lol !!!!!!! ( I know you said you wish you could sleep. I'm just joking with you )

    When you say "Eat less than you burn." Do you mean I should eat 1500 calories and burn 1600? Wouldn't that give me -100 calories for the day and be really bad since I would be starving myself? Right now I am giving myself a 1500 calorie a day limit and am a bit under that food wise. I have been power walking for 1 hour. The calories I burned yesterday were 610 roughly and I ate 1700 in calories. Which would give me 1100 calories for the day. But I certainly did not burn 1700 calories. If I did I would of had been at a severe negative. Can you elaborate how this works? Thanks!
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    edited December 2015
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    no problem.

    @jarablue By definition, the only way to lose weight is to starve yourself and force your body to use fat for energy. What thorsmom01 means by "burn" though isn't exercise calories only, but total daily calories expended both for every day living and exercise. My Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is around 2700 calories. To eat less than I burn I just have to eat less than 2700 calories. If I eat 2000 calories/day, then I'll lose just shy of 1.5lb/week (assuming 100% fat loss).
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,585 Member
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    Lack of rest or sleep affects the percentage of body fat you burn. You burn the highest percent of body fat at sleep and at rest since fat is the preferred fuel in this state.
    Physically moving will rely on glycogen stores as an energy source. And don't get me started on alcohol if it's in your system.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,973 Member
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    @ninerbuff - please do start on alcohol - sup?
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,164 Member
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    Your body just keeps burning a certain amount of calories per minute. Some is your basal metabolic rate, some is the extra calories burned because of your activity. Where lack of sleep becomes a problem is in how it messes up other things, but in terms of calorie burning, your body just keeps going.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Lack of rest or sleep affects the percentage of body fat you burn. You burn the highest percent of body fat at sleep and at rest since fat is the preferred fuel in this state.
    Physically moving will rely on glycogen stores as an energy source. And don't get me started on alcohol if it's in your system.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    Well, that glycogen gets restored next time you eat making you lose more fat after that point, or not?
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    edited December 2015
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    stevencloser wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Lack of rest or sleep affects the percentage of body fat you burn. You burn the highest percent of body fat at sleep and at rest since fat is the preferred fuel in this state.
    Physically moving will rely on glycogen stores as an energy source. And don't get me started on alcohol if it's in your system.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    Well, that glycogen gets restored next time you eat making you lose more fat after that point, or not?

    glycogen gets restored either from energy stored in your body (glycogenesis) or from food you eat. Ultimately, if you eat at a deficit you'll lose weight regardless of how much sleep you get. Lack of sleep may shift the equation to cause more LBM loss, but I don't know. What I do know is that one nights bad sleep (or crappy work assignment) doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. If you habitually get 4 hours of sleep or have restless nights and are constantly sleep deprived that would be a different story.
  • pyrowill
    pyrowill Posts: 1,163 Member
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    Easy way to think about it. Think of calories as a weekly goal, rather than a daily goal.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    nordlead2005 wrote: »
    no problem.

    @jarablue By definition, the only way to lose weight is to starve yourself and force your body to use fat for energy. What thorsmom01 means by "burn" though isn't exercise calories only, but total daily calories expended both for every day living and exercise. My Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is around 2700 calories. To eat less than I burn I just have to eat less than 2700 calories. If I eat 2000 calories/day, then I'll lose just shy of 1.5lb/week (assuming 100% fat loss).
    @jarablue I just noticed you tagged me but it looks like someone else covered the question already. Yes when I say burn, I don't mean just exercise . your body burns calories all day long just by being alive. My tdee is around 2400 cals per day. So eating less then that, would be eating less then I burn.

  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    jarablue wrote: »
    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    No , its not a stupid question at all !! No question is stupid . we have all been new once. We where not born with this knowledge so it takes time to learn .
    Cico is great, just don't over think it ( we all over think it when we are new lol )
    Just remember- eat less then you burn and you'll lose weight. We as modern humans keep track of 24 hr time to make our lives easier but your body isn't going to say, " she hasn't slept so I will count this 48 hr period as 24" your body will burn a certain number of calories just by being alive every day , it happens if we sleep or not. So don't worry about it.
    And get some rest!!! Lol !!!!!!! ( I know you said you wish you could sleep. I'm just joking with you )

    When you say "Eat less than you burn." Do you mean I should eat 1500 calories and burn 1600? Wouldn't that give me -100 calories for the day and be really bad since I would be starving myself? Right now I am giving myself a 1500 calorie a day limit and am a bit under that food wise. I have been power walking for 1 hour. The calories I burned yesterday were 610 roughly and I ate 1700 in calories. Which would give me 1100 calories for the day. But I certainly did not burn 1700 calories. If I did I would of had been at a severe negative. Can you elaborate how this works? Thanks!

    Your body burns calories just by staying alive. It uses calories to operate all its systems because almost everything in the body needs energy to continue doing its work. So when someone says "eat less than you burn", the calories you burn here include everything from your heart pumping, to your day to day movements to your exercise. So if you burn 2000 calories a day just by staying alive and doing daily tasks and you eat 1500 calories you would still be eating less than you burn even if you don't do a single minute of intentional exercise, and your body will be forced to extract energy from other sources like your fat reserves and muscle to continue running its systems. You would still be netting 1500 calories in this case and providing your body with a good enough base for energy where it only needs to supplement it with 500 calories from your fat and muscle reserves.

    Now the scenario you are talking about is when someone exercises a lot to the point where the body is forced to get ALL of its energy from fat and muscle reserves, which is a very taxing process and is not healthy.
  • ryanflebbe
    ryanflebbe Posts: 188 Member
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    stevencloser wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Lack of rest or sleep affects the percentage of body fat you burn. You burn the highest percent of body fat at sleep and at rest since fat is the preferred fuel in this state.
    Physically moving will rely on glycogen stores as an energy source. And don't get me started on alcohol if it's in your system.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    Well, that glycogen gets restored next time you eat making you lose more fat after that point, or not?

    No. What he is saying is that at rest, like sleeping, or doing nothing, your body is getting the energy it needs to function from fat. You are burning bodyfat to keep your base metabolism. If you are up and around and doing things, your body starts using other energy pathways that burn glycogen to a greater extent. Your body will burn fat too, but it burns the largest percentage of calories from fat during sleep or little to no activity when awake. You also recover the most while sleeping(that should be obvious). I probably didn't explain that very well, so basically, getting plenty of sleep helps your body burn more fat and recover better from workouts and build more muscle.
  • spzjlb
    spzjlb Posts: 599 Member
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    As a sideways response to the OP, like lots of people these days, I am constantly sleep deprived and feel like I'm running on fumes all the time. But, I don't think this terrible habit of mine impeded my ability to lose weight or keep it off. My willpower to eat well is, however, diminished on really bad days. Weirdly, I've learned that a workout really helps me feel like a human when I'm really tired, so I don't skip exercise.

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