Why Is Sleep Important When You're Losing Weight?

Written by: Crystal Foster

If you're trying to lose weight, there's nothing more frustrating than watching what you eat and exercising just to find out that you haven't loss any weight or maybe even gained some. For some time, I found myself getting frustrated and discouraged when this was happening to me. Then one morning, I got up for a bathroom run and weighed myself to find that I didn't lose any weight. I went back to sleep, and weighed myself again, after waking up, to find that I had lost over one pound.

This got me thinking. Why did sleep make a difference? So I started to do some research and found out how significant sleep is to weight loss, and many other health issues. Here is a list of five reasons why sleep is important for weight loss.

1. People who have poor sleep habits tend to have higher BMI (Body Mass Index), which is the ratio of body fat based on height and weight.
2. Less sleep leads to muscle loss. Muscle burns more calories than fat.
3. Your metabolism drops when you have less sleep. 
4. Less sleep increases your Insulin Resistance. Increased Insulin Resistance increases your appetite.
5. Your Cortisol levels increase with less sleep. It also increases stress which continues to increase your Cortisol level. Increased Cortisol prevents you from getting adequate sleep and increases your cravings.

Health professionals suggest that you get anywhere between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. You do burn calories while you sleep. The amount of calories you burn depends on your weight. The heavier you are, the more calories you burn per hour. Even if you burn only 50 calories per hour, that's 50 times 7, if you get 7 hours of sleep.

When I lost weight before, I found that I slept better. There are studies that show the more you lose weight, the better you sleep. Like many people, I do struggle to get a good nights sleep, and find myself getting sluggish during the day. I also noticed that if I have a day where I do more physical activities than usual, I sleep better. My way of coping with not getting enough sleep, is to add a liquid supplement to my water. It helps to boost my metabolism and energy. I provided a link below if you would like to take a look at the supplement that I use.

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