Fitness Friday: Sleep on It

I’m tired. I’m struggling to lose weight post-baby…its been nearly four months. What am I missing? I have these insatiable cravings for candy and sweets…two things I don’t typically crave…I’m exhausted ALL the time….what gives?

Turns out it just might not be my fault….at least…not completely.

After doing a little research I’ve discovered that there is a huge correlation between sleep patterns and weight loss. Several years of scientific studies on sleep-wake patterns and fitness have produced the following:

• Women who routinely sleep 5 hours a day, or less, gain more weight than women who sleep at least 7 hours a day.
• People who sleep less than 8 hours a day have a higher increase of body fat over the years than people who routinely sleep 8 or more hours per day.

Why is this the case? Your body works in 24 hour cycles. if you aren’t committing enough time to sleeping, your metabolism and hormones will not cycle correctly.

There are two different hormones that regulate feelings of hunger in your body. Ghrelin is responsible for feelings of hunger. Leptin tells the brain when it’s time to stop. When you’re sleep deprived, your ghrelin levels increase at the same time that your leptin levels decrease. The result is an increased craving for food and not feeling full. Add the fact that sleep deprived people tend to chose different foods to snack on—mainly high calorie sweets and salty and starchy foods—and it’s easy to see how these small changes can lead to long-term weight gain.

So what does all of this mean? it means I’m blaming SuperBaby’s awesome sleep (or lack there of) patterns for my struggle! I’m kidding. In all seriousness, what this means is that not only do we need to eat healthy foods in moderation and exercise… we need to get a solid amount of sleep as well.

For me, giving up those precious quiet hours alone at night in lieu of a couple extra hours of shut eye may be the hardest part of this journey yet.