J. Gregory: Wellness Series: Sleep and weight loss

I had done research on this subject because at one point throughout my journey I was having a hard time losing weight but didn’t take into account that I was waking up 1-3 times a night with my daughter to feed her and soothe her back to sleep. Now that we are all sleeping a bit better things seem to be moving in the right direction again.

Even though I am always reading and researching health and wellness it amazes me how much weight loss and health truly is a whole circle encompassing the eating, workouts, sleep, stress and happiness. I started to realize this in my own life and journey. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that this is my second transformation and in my first transformation my son was already 2 and sleeping through the night so these little lifestyle things weren’t so much of an issue for me personally. So, I want to make a series on WELLNESS other than just focusing on the eating and exercise portion because truly that is a BIG part of it but there is more and what kind of coach would I be if I didn’t help you with your WHOLE self.

I will be posting once a week about stress, the importance of play, sleep, among other things that we may not see as part of the WHOLE self when it comes to healthy living. As I research I will be posting what I find is easy to understand terms. I truly want to inspire you to be able to live a healthy life by leading a healthy lifestyle! So, without further ado…….

Sleep is probably one of the least looked at things when it comes to losing weight. Most probably don’t even see it in the equation to weight loss. I didn’t for the longest time until I started putting an effort into my life as being healthy as a whole.

Here are a few terms I am going to be tossing around. They are necessary and you should understand what they mean.

Insulin – Hormone that regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats.

Leptin – The “satiety” hormone. It regulates your energy balance by inhibiting hunger.

Cortisol - Stress Hormone if it goes up too much it can make you gain some weight.

OK! So when you aren’t sleeping well or for a long duration (shorter than 7 hours) you lose energy and your brain does not function as it should. It doesn’t function properly because you are not giving the neurons enough time to shut down and repair themselves after you have used them all day. In return this leaves you waking up in a fog or without the ability to focus which also leads to you making not healthy choices because the effects of little sleep compare to that of a person who is drunk.

When you lose sleep you create this cycle of having low energy, maybe not completing your workouts, and or making bad food choices because without the sleep that you need you are not metabolizing your food the same way. According to Web MD, sleep deprived people have a 55% reduction in fat loss. The reason this happens is because your leptin hormones are at low and since leptin is the hormone that tells you that you are full, you are most likely going to feel hungrier than normal and want more snacks that are carb heavy which as we all know is bad for the waistline! In addition to your leptin levels being low your cortisol levels (stress hormone) are going to go high and your body is going to put itself in a stress state which means that weight loss is going to be harder. This creates the insulin hormone to be slower to respond and rather than the hormone metabolizing the carbohydrates and fats that you are eating because you are tired it is STORING THEM AS FAT!

So to keep things on a simple level get some sleep at least 7 hours and here are some other things that you can start to include in your nightly routine to ensure better sleep.

Turn off all the electronics an hour or more before you go to sleep. The light the is emitted from your phone does not let your melatonin levels act right. I personally try to read a book before I go to bed, it tires my eyes and it helps me relax.

Try to stay on a schedule with your sleep. This one is hard for me because I love to sleep in on the weekends as much as I can and seriously who wants to wake up at 5:30 in the morning on your days off. I would probably be more productive but I try to sleep in for at least an hour unless my daughter says otherwise.

Don’t eat heavy or spicy foods a few hours before you go to sleep. It can cause you to have bad dreams, indigestion, and it puts your digestive system to serious work when you body should be at rest and rejuvenating. Try to eat something light if you really have to eat something before bed.

These are probably the biggest take a ways that I got from these two articles sited below. Take a look and I llok forward to bringing you more information on your WHOLE self!