Sleep

I don't, but I have seen other longer threads on the subject recently.

Could search keyword sleep on MFP and it might pull up the other threads.

kimny72 wrote: »

Derekok wrote: »

Does anyone have any information on the effect sleep (or lack of it ) has on weight loss ?

I've seen articles suggesting that lack of adequate sleep can affect your appetite and satiety hormones, but I don't remember how much research was behind that.

I'd assume that when you are tired, your body craves more calories to try to get some extra energy. And I'd also assume that when you are tired, you are less active throughout the day and give less effort to any workout you do, lowering you CO.

I also make lousy decisions when I'm tired.

A quick search suggests that there actually have been quite a few studies but many of them are focused on certain age groups and often only correlate to conditions such as sleep apnea.

Here is a generic study I found that looked at a large sample of men and women ages 51-72 over 7.5 years. It generally found that less sleep is correlated with more weight gain. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/178/11/1600/83147

As others have said, the more tired I am the more likely I am to overeat through the day due to a combination of lack of willpower and trying to get an energy boost from more food/caloric drinks.

I think it’s a very individual thing, hence the loads of evidence that is purely anecdotal. Some bodies respond differently to lack of sleep than others. I know that if I don’t get adequate sleep I retain water weight more than if I get proper sleep. I also feel like crud and don’t exercise like I do on days I sleep well.

I'm sure there is research on it out there somewhere, otherwise people wouldn't be banging on about how important it is to sleep.

For me personally, if I don't sleep enough and am tired the next day, it makes it harder for me to stick to lower calorie goals because when I'm tired, I don't know, I get "hungry" - or I get the desire to eat. Possibly it's a thing like "if I eat this chocolate cake I will have more energy to function".

BUT - i'm one of those people who NEED sleep. Like I NEED MINIMUM 7.5 hrs per night. MINIMUM. That's actually not even good. 8 solid hours, preferably 8.5-9 hours.

I do not function on any less than 7 hours.

My anecdotal response is that my sleep has been *kitten* this week and I want to eat all zee foods!

I'm taking diphenhydramine tonight and will sleep finally like a dead person. And tomorrow I won't want to eat my arm off.

I am not sure really. Personally I have insomnia and am pretty much always sleep-deprived, I still have consistent weight loss as long as I stick in my caloric limit. I believe the idea of "sleeplessness = weight gain" is because you are awake longer giving you more time to over-eat.

From what I've seen the biggest problem is that when you're tired it's much harder to resist overeating.

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Lillymoo01 wrote: »

lorrpb wrote: »

I recall the explanation is that Lack of sleep increases cortisol which causes water retention and slight slowdown of fat loss. But it doesn’t prevent weight loss if you’re in a proper calorie deficit. Sorry but I don’t have any articles handy at the moment.

There is that but I also learned that lack of sleep can also affect other hormones, including ghrelin and leptin which both impact on your hunger levels. Therefore the less you sleep the hungrier you can become. Lack of sleep also leads to fatigue which can also lead to less physical activity and a greater chance of grabbing quick and easy food which is calorie-dense but not satiating nor nutritious. While is still all boils down to calories in versus calories out it is much harder to achieve that balance when you are sleep deprived.

Yep. Google "sleep ghrelin leptin." There is plenty of evidence, not all anecdotal. I am one of those who feel acutely higher ghrelin (growth hormone stimulates appetite) and lower leptin (satiety hormone) with insufficient sleep. Willpower is no match for these powerful messengers. I do not have noticeable cortisol/water retention effects. My understanding is the effects are all about appetite, not about metabolism (i.e. no impact on fat burning for the same activity level). In other words, you are likely to eat more for higher CI but no independent impact on CO (unless you are just too tired to maintain your normal activity).