Poor Sleep Changes Your Fat Cells
Think about the last time you had a bad night of sleep. How did you feel when you woke up? Exhausted. Dazed. Confused. Maybe even a little grumpy? It’s not just your brain and body that feel that wayyour fat cells do, too. When your body is sleep-deprived, it suffers from “metabolic grogginess.” The term was coined by University of Chicago researchers who analyzed what happened after just four days of poor sleepsomething that commonly happens during a busy week. One late night at work leads to two late nights at home, and next thing you know, you’re in sleep debt.
But it’s just four nights, so how bad could it be? You might be able to cope just fine. After all, coffee does wonders. But the hormones that control your fat cells don’t feel the same way.
Within just four days of sleep deprivation, your body’s ability to properly use insulin becomes completely disrupted. In fact, the University of Chicago researchers found that insulin sensitivity dropped by more than 30 percent.
Here’s why that’s bad: When your insulin is functioning well, fat cells remove fatty acids and lipids from your bloodstream and prevent storage. When you become more insulin-resistant, fats circulate in your blood and pump out more insulin. Eventually, this excess insulin ends up storing fat in all the wrong places, such as tissues like your liver. And this is exactly how you become fat and suffer from diseases like diabetes.
Best Night Time Weight Loss Pills: How To Burn More Calories While Sleeping
Imagine how amazing it would be to just go to sleep and shed the pounds away in the night. What if we told you that is completely possible, and youre probably already doing it every night. The concept of burning calories in sleep is one of the latest discoveries in the diet and nutrition world, and weve decided to tackle it as well. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, weve gathered some of the best products you can use to shed pounds in sleep. So, without further ado, lets get started!
Note: We dont recommend you substitute a healthy diet and exercise with the fat burning diet pills. The pills work best when taken together with a healthy diet and a proper exercise regime.
Before taking any of the recommended supplements, make sure to consult with your doctor and see how they might affect you and your health in particular. None of the recommended supplements are FDA approved or certified.
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May Help You Make Better Food Choices
Getting a full nights sleep may help you make healthier food choices.
Lack of sleep alters the way your brain works and can affect decision making. This may make it harder to make healthy food choices and resist tempting foods .
In addition, it appears that the reward centers of the brain are more stimulated by food when you are sleep deprived .
For example, one study found that sleep deprived participants had greater reward-related brain responses after viewing images of high calorie foods. Interestingly, they were also more likely to pay more for food than those who had adequate sleep .
Therefore, after a night of poor sleep, not only is that bowl of ice cream more rewarding, but youll likely have a harder time practicing self-control.
Another study showed that sleep deprivation led to increased smell sensitivity to high calorie foods and greater consumption .
Furthermore, lack of sleep may lead to poorer food choices, such as a higher intake of foods high in calories, sugar, and fat, to compensate for feeling a lack of energy .
Summary
Poor sleep can decrease your self-control and decision making abilities, as well as increase your brains reaction to food. Poor sleep has also been linked to an increased intake of foods high in calories, fats, and sugar.
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Throw Out The Night Light
Exposure to light at night doesn’t just interrupt your chances of a great night’s sleep, it may also result in weight gain according to a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Study subjects who slept in the darkest rooms were 21 percent less likely to be obese than those sleeping in the lightest rooms.
That leads us to our next sleep-slimming trick.
What Can You Do To Stop Eating Unhealthy Food When Youre Overtired
We are often keen to have a magic answer, but I would encourage stepping back and valuing and being kind to yourself, says British Dietetic Association spokesperson and dietitian, Aisling Pigott. Thats not to say she doesnt have tips that can help you during times of tiredness.
Try to regulate your meal pattern, as this supports energy levels and your ability to make healthy choices. Choose simple, easy-to-prepare meals with fruit or vegetables. Stay away from faddy or overly restrictive diets that can lead to over-eating, and sit down, relax and enjoy your meals with no computer, phone or laptop, she says.
And if youre after healthy, energy-boosting food, go for low-GI foods such as wholemeal carbohydrates, nuts and seeds and fruit and vegetables which will allow a slow release of energy without making you feel sluggish, says Pigott.
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Are You Trying To Recover From Binge Eating Disorder Alone
If youre reading this, youre either preparing for full professional mainstream therapy or alternative treatment for binge eating disorder, informing yourself about binge eating disorder treatment because a loved one is going through it, or you have binge eating disorder and you are wondering whether you can overcome it by yourself.
If you fall into that last category, and recovering from binge eating disorder by yourself is harder than you thought it would be, you may want to know that even if treatment at an eating disorder clinic is not currently possible for you, guided-self help therapy may be an option, and drugs used to treat binge eating disorder may be a prescription away. Home treatment for binge eating disorder, with herbs, may complement your eating plan as well.
Weight Loss Action Point
If you want to lose weight, you should make sure that you are getting sufficient sleep in addition to following a healthy diet and exercise program. For most of us, that means, you’ll need 7 hours or more a night.
- American Thoracic Society, International Conference, News release, San Diego, May 19-24, 2006.
- Patel SR, Malhotra A, White DP, Gottlieb DJ, Hu FB. Association between reduced sleep and weight gain in women. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Nov 15 164:947-54. Shomon, Mary. The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss, HarperCollins. 2004.
- Spiegel K, Leproult R, Van Cauter E. “Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function.” Lancet. 1999 354:1435-1439.
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How Sleep Affects Our Emotions
In one brain imaging study, subjects were assigned into either a normal sleep group or a sleep-deprived group. In the latter, no sleep was allowed from the start of one day, through the night and during the course of the next day .
Both groups were then asked to look at images and rate them as either pleasant or neutral, while their brain activity was examined by MRI scanning.
Sleep-deprived subjects were significantly more likely to rate the images as pleasing compared to the subjects who had had a good nightâs sleep. When their brain activity was examined, this corresponded with an enhanced activation of the pleasure and reward centres.
So what does this mean exactly? When weâre sleep-deprived, a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved in the regulation of emotions and emotional behaviour, becomes much more responsive to things perceived as pleasing and those that are rewarding 7.
Our brainâs reward system uses both the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and drives our behaviour towards things we like and away from things that we donât .
Sleep Habits That Can Help You Lose Weight
When it comes to losing weight, sleep can be just as important as exercise and nutrition. Here are six changes to make for better sleep and weight loss.
Diet and exercise are two key aspects of successful weight loss, but there’s another important factor that tends to get neglected-sleep! Adults need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep each night, yet the CDC estimates that at least one-third of U.S. adults log less than seven hours.
When it comes to weight loss, the effects of not getting enough shuteye go way beyond being a little tired or less productive. Inadequate sleep triggers metabolic and hormonal changes, which increase appetite and cravings and decrease insulin sensitivity. These effects are so significant that inadequate sleep is considered to be a risk factor for weight gain and obesity.
Additionally, a lack of sleep can make it even more difficult to stick to healthy food choices since mental health, mood and thought patterns are also impacted. So, what can you do to make your snoozing longer and more restful? Here are six small changes for better sleep to support weight loss.
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Blackout With Blackout Shades
Light-blocking curtains make a huge difference when it comes to falling asleep. Outside light makes it harder for your mind to shut down, even if you think you’re immune to such instinctive signals. Melatonin, the hormone involved in putting your body to sleep, is compromised when light is present.
“Darken your room so that going to bed, even early, feels natural,” Smiley says.
Sleep Controls Your Diet
The debate about the best way to achieve a healthy weight always revolves around eating and movement. If you want to look better, the most common suggestion is “eat less and move more.” But it’s not that simple, or even accurate. Sometimes you want to eat less and move more, but it seems impossible to do so. And there might be a good reason: Between living your life, working, and exercising, you’re forgetting to sleep enough. Or maybe, more importantly, you don’t realize that sleep is the key to being rewarded for your diet and fitness efforts. In fact, around 30 percent of adults don’t get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . And when you consider that the statistic for obesity is nearly identical, it’s easy to connect the dots and discover that the connection is not a coincidence.
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Can’t Lose Weight Research Says Bad Sleep Is To Blame
If you’re working out and changed your diet to lose weight, but the scale isn’t budging, you might not be sleeping well.
Sleep might be the missing key to your goal weight.
You work hard to lose weight. You eat all your fruits and vegetables, drink plenty of water and crush a workout several times per week. Heck, maybe you even track your macros, count your calories or have a full-on food journal. And of course you keep a close eye on your daily step count and log your workouts.
So why — cue frustrated hand gestures — can’t you lose weight?
If you’re doing all of the above, you probably already know that weight loss is a long, windy, nuanced process. You can’t avoid the ups and downs and you have to keep chugging along despite bad days.
But when you have everything so dialed in, so meticulously planned, it can feel like a strong slap in the face when your body doesn’t budge. You might be missing one big piece of the puzzle. You might not even know this piece exists it’s an often overlooked aspect of weight loss.
The big missing piece? Precious sleep.
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Sleep Leads To Better Calorie Burn
While you sleep, youre likely to burn somewhere between 50 and 100 calories an hour. According to Walker, When you dream, your brain can be asif not moreactive than when youre awake.
Experts are now learning that getting the right amount of sleep encourages a healthy metabolism, and skimping on sleep throws it out of whack. For example, a 2012 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that when a small group of men and women got only four hours of sleep a night, their bodies became more insulin-resistant, a red flag for obesity and diabetes.
Other research has shown that sleeping in cooler temperatures can stimulate a type of fat called brown fat, which burns more calories and has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. In a 2014 study, a group of healthy men spent a month sleeping in a 66° room. After just one chilly month, the men had a 42% increase in brown fat and a 10% increase in metabolic fat activity. Sleeping in a cool room may sound like an easy fix, but its no cakewalk. Simply turning up the AC and wrapping up in a blanket doesnt count. The researchers suspect the act of shivering is one of the primary drivers of the effect, so you have to really feel the chill.
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Maintaining A Healthy Relationship With Your Body
Deciding if you should attempt to change your body weight is a personal decision best made with the guidance of your doctor. Dont take all the health and weight loss information you read online at face value. Weight loss isnt appropriate for everyone and doesnt always mean better health. Remember that health is a lifelong journey that includes not only healthy habits but also having a healthy relationship with your body. If youre considering weight loss, the National Institutes of Health offers a helpful resource for choosing a safe weight loss program.
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Give Yourself Time To Relax Before Bed
Part of your consistent schedule should be the things you do before you go to bed. Your body looks for signs that bedtime is imminent, including when you start to slow things down. Give yourself 30 minutes of quiet time reading a book or lying back in your favorite recliner before heading off to sleep.
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Tricks And Tips For A Better Nights Sleep
In todays world, snoozing can be difficult, particularly when all your screens lure you into staying up just a little longer.
The basics are pretty simple:
- Shut down your computer, cell phone, and TV at least an hour before you hit the sack.
- Save your bedroom for sleep and sex. Think relaxation and release, rather than work or entertainment.
- Create a bedtime ritual. It’s not the time to tackle big issues. Instead, take a warm bath, meditate, or read.
- Stick to a schedule, waking up and retiring at the same times every day, even on weekends.
- Watch what and when you eat. Avoid eating heavy meals and alcohol close to bedtime, which may cause heartburn and make it hard to fall asleep. And steer clear of soda, tea, coffee, and chocolate after 2 p.m. Caffeine can stay in your system for 5 to 6 hours.
- Turn out the lights. Darkness cues your body to release the natural sleep hormone melatonin, while light suppresses it.
Youre Not Keeping Track Of What Youre Eating
Awareness is incredibly important if you are trying to lose weight. Many people dont have a clue how much theyre really eating.
Studies show that keeping track of your food intake helps with weight loss. People who use food diaries or photograph their meals consistently lose more weight than people who dont .
At the same time, there is a potential downside to food tracking, especially when its used for the purpose of weight loss. For people with eating disorders, calorie counting and food tracking has been shown to aggravate potentially harmful side effects (
17 ).
If you are not losing weight, you should try weighing your foods and tracking your calories for a while.
Here are some helpful resources:
- Calorie calculator. Use a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories to eat.
- Calorie counters. This is a list of five free websites and apps that can help you keep track of your calorie and nutrient intake.
Tracking is also important if youre trying to reach a certain nutrient goal, such as getting 30% of your calories from protein. This can be impossible to achieve if youre not tracking things properly.
It is generally not necessary to count calories and weigh everything for the rest of your life. Instead, try out these techniques for a few days every few months to get a feel for how much youre eating.
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Dining In Front Of The Tv
While it doesnt pack on pounds all by itself, the more time you spend chowing down in front of the television, the more likely you are to eat mindlessly. Thats risky for anyone who wants to change their dietary habits to lose weight. Studies show that distracted eating usually means eating more. When youre distracted, you tend to forget what you ate and how much you ate, and that means youre likelier to eat more later on.
It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that youre full, so slowing down and savoring food helps you remain content with less. So instead of munching in front of the TV, try eating without distraction. Take smaller bites, chewing well. Set a timer for 20 minutes before going back for second helpings. Another trick is to eat with your less-dominant hand, which forces you to pay attention.
