Sleep More; Sleep Your Pounds Off.....

You've heard heaps of these, haven't you?

That to shed unwanted "baggages" (aka excess pounds, fat/weight), you got to go for the combo of:

-Exercise 3-4 times per week for at least 30 minutes per session

-Eat well-balanced, nutritious diet that promotes weight loss

Ouch! Isn't that pretty tough already for you?

Hang on! I'm gonna tell you that this combo may not be the "all" to losing weight because the latest "new kid on the block" for weight loss is to throw in this "cool" thing - SLEEP, sleep enough, that is.

To sleep your pounds off.......

Sounds enticing? Just sleep enough and you melt away the pounds?

Wait, wait, wait.....don't jump the gun. I must add that the combo of exercise and healthy diet is still very much your prime "show".

Sleep is the 3rd component or rather could be the missing piece to the puzzle of losing weight.

According to studies, sleep, sleep enough (here I go again like a tape recorder....) plays a big role in your weight control.

Sleep enough? What's enough? Oh, well, 7-8 hours per night does the job nicely.

You know the good virtues of getting enough sleep, right?

Come on, name a few.

Here, I give you a helping hand:

-Restoration of body cells and tissues

-Renewal and rejuvenation of your body

-Recovery from sickness, stress and fatigue

-Boosts immune system

-Increased mental sharpness and alertness

-Improved skin condition

-Increased concentration and energy

-More productive and efficient during work

And so on and so forth.......

These are the good old things about having a good night's sleep.

But researchers have gone one step further; they find that there's a correlation between sleep and body weight.

How much sleep you've will now determine how much weight you gain.

According to them, this all boils down to 2 hormones that affect your appetitites, the production of which depends big time on whether you sleep enough sleep:

-Ghrelin

-Leptin

These 2 hormones are dubbed the "yin" and "yang" of hunger; they work in a kind of check-and-balance system that controls whether you feel hungry or not.

Let's see how these 2 hormones work out and control your body weight.

Ghrelin is the hormone for hunger and leptin is the hormone for energy balance (in short, calorie balance).

When leptin levels are high, they signal your brain that your body has sufficient food and hence, you feel full. When they're low, the opposite happens.

How are these 2 hormones affected by sleep?

Well, if you don't have enough sleep, your leptin levels would be down, which makes you feel not full after your meal while your ghrelin levels would go up, which stimulates your appetitite and makes you crave for more food.

These high levels cause you to eat more, at times even overeat, which could lead to weight gain and obesity, in the absence of adequate exercise.

So, if you make-do with 5/6 hours of sleep per night now (due to various reasons.....), it's time to clock in 1 or 2 more hours per night, to manage and control your weight.

This is because during sleep, you produce leptin (in combination with other body chemicals) that'll help you to control your appetitite.

You might think sleeping more seems a counter-intuitive thing against weight gain since the traditional thinking is that sleeping more makes you fat.

But have you thought about it? More often than not, on those wakeful hours in the nights (when you should be sleeping), you could be rummaging through foods to eat and end up consuming far more calories than you should.....

Well, what I wanna say is that unless you can't sleep due to specific reasons (like certain sleep disorders, menopausal insomnia or drug-related sleeplessness), you should sleep more, sleep enough to control your weight. If not, still, it'll do you tons of good and you know it.

If you've been pinning on losing weight thru the combo of exercise and healthy diet, sleep therapy (sleep more, sleep enough) could be your 3rd component, to make it a trio:

-Exercise

-Healthy diet

-Sleep more


Cecelia Yap is a seasoned exerciser who walks the talk concerning exercise.

Her passion is exercise, fitness and eating right.

She shows you what works and what doesn't at her website: http://www.perfect-body-toning.com