August 7, 2022
We all have heard fat loss is “80% nutrition and 20% training”.
Today the reality is that it is 20% training while 80% is divided between nutrition, stress management and deep sleep.
While we all know sleep is essential for our physical and mental health, we don’t always prioritize getting high quality of sleep.
Sleep loss reduces insulin sensitivity – When you don’t sleep enough (8-9 hours), you reduce your body’s capacity to use carbohydrates as fuel. As a result, blood sugar gets disrupted and your body stores fat especially on your upper back and love handles. Reduction in insulin sensitivity is particularly high in women who don’t sleep well.
You develop higher inflammation and related health risks – An inflamed gut is more porous than it should be, allowing food particles, yeast, parasites and toxins to leak into the blood stream. Inflammation makes it hard to lose weight and drop body fat especially around the waist.
Your metabolism slows down – In a study done with two groups of overweight men and women, it was found that those who slept 8.5 hours, reduced more fat than those who slept 5.5 hours. Both these groups were eating approximately 1450 calories! Not only that, but the group that slept less, lost more muscle than the group that slept longer!
Food cravings increase – Leptin is a hormone that regulates appetite while ghrelin triggers hunger. Not getting enough deep sleep reduces leptin and increases ghrelin. This leads to strong cravings for high carb foods!
