Is there really a connection between lack of sleep and weight gain? Are we talking about getting up during the middle of the night to eat and thereby losing out on sleep? If not, then what is the connection between the two? In this post we will look at why lack of sleep can lead to weight gain…
Firstly, lack of sleep can cause many health-related issues of which weight gain is just one. And there are two main reasons for it: sleep deprivation and bad food choices because of the alteration of appetite due to a shift in hormones.
Sleep Deprivation
When sleep deprived, the body’s metabolism system doesn’t function correctly, so it is not burning calories as efficiently as it could. Research has shown the issue seems to come from a change in glucose tolerance, or the body’s ability to turn food into glucose and get it to the cells where it can be used for energy.
Being sleep deprived, glucose tolerance can diminish as much as 40%. If calories are not being processed, they are stored as fat, which ultimately leads to weight gain.
Bad Food Choices
The other part is the bad food choices we make when sleep deprived. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation causes an increase in the hormone Ghrelin, which controls our appetite and a decrease in Leptin, which tells us when we are full.
Sleepily we grab a cup of coffee or two, along with a doughnut for some quick energy. This boost created by the sugar in the doughnut and coffee, if you added some, soon wears off and before long you are back looking for more food.
The issue is you are not looking for carrots or even apple slices with peanut butter, something that would be good for you. No, you are back looking for another doughnut or something that will give you another sugar rush again, has a lot of calories and absolutely no nutritional value.
The long-term result of this eating behaviour is weight gain, even to the point of obesity. Typically, those that are sleep-deprived eat about 300 calories per day more than when they are fully rested. Over the course of one week, that is a pound of weight gain just from not getting enough sleep. Fifty-two weeks, fifty-two pounds! You get the picture here?
It wouldn’t be as bad … but still not ideal, if you hit the gym sometime during the day to burn off as many of those calories as you could. Yet being sleep deprived you are too tired to exercise, so the weight just keeps piling on.
Quality Sleep
A typical adult on average needs at least 8 hours of quality sleep per night to avoid sleep deprivation and the change in hormones. The combination of taking in more calories and the body’s ability to efficiently burn them being altered, coupled with a lack of exercise due to tiredness, the inevitable end result is weight gain…and in some cases, a lot of it.
