Lose Weight While You Sleep

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Lose Weight While You Sleep

• Copyright 2009 Terry Shintani, MD, JD, MPH, KSJ

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Can sleep help you control your weight?

• The answer a resounding YES! may surprise
  you.

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• Whats even more surprising is how much
  evidence supports the fact that regular and
  adequate sleep can help you control your weight.
  But what I find most eye-opening of all is how
  long weve known about the relationship to good
  health and good sleep.
• 5,000 years ago, the Nei ching the ancient
  Chinese classic and oldest book on internal
  medicine -- lists one of the key elements of good
  health and longevity is regular sleep.

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• Since that time, researchers have discovered
  that sleep is much more important to our health
  than we might have imagined. And recently, it is
  becoming increasingly evident that a good nights
  sleep is also more important than we ever
  imagined to our weight control. When youre sleep
  deprivedeven a littleyou create additional
  obstacles to your weight loss goals. The body
  reacts to this by hoarding calories as fat,
  making weight loss very difficult.

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Science To The Rescue

• One reason is pure commerce someone is
  always trying to make money with weight loss
  products and the promise of dropping pounds
  without doing anything but getting a good nights
  sleep is very appealing. But the more important
  reason that lose weight while you sleep is such
  a commonly heard phrase these days is that
  science is catching up to the notion that sleep
  is important to weight loss.

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• How do you lose weight while you sleep? Well
  I touched on it in the section on Play More
  where I describe the effect of exercising
  regularly. To reiterate the importance of
  regular exercise, I want to emphasize that one of
  the best outcomes of regular exercise is not just
  the calories you burn while exercising.
• Regular exercise bumps up your resting
  metabolic rate and helps you burn more calories
  at rest. Even while you sleep! Thus, if you do
  exercise regularly, you will soon begin to lose
  weight while you sleep.

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• But theres another newer set of findings
  about sleep that may be just as important.
  Researchers are finding that sleep and how much
  of it you get regularly has an important effect
  on hormones that regulate your appetite and
  regulate your metabolism.

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The Hormone Connection

• David Rapoport, MD, director of the Sleep
  Medicine Program at the New York University
  School of Medicine in New York City points out
  that "One of the more interesting ideas that has
  been smoldering and is now gaining momentum (in
  weight loss theory) is the appreciation of the
  fact that sleep and sleep disruption do
  remarkable things to the body -- including
  possibly influencing our weight."

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• According to Michael Breus, PhD, a faculty
  member of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine
  and director of The Sleep Disorders Centers of
  Southeastern Lung Care in Atlanta, one of the
  most intriguing findings has to do with recently
  discovered hormones leptin and ghrelin. These
  two hormones work in tandem in a "checks and
  balances" system that regulates feelings of
  hunger and fullness.

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• As expected, those who slept less than eight
  hours a night had lower levels of leptin and
  higher levels of ghrelin. Butthey also had a
  higher level of body fat. What's more, that
  level of body fat seemed to correlate with their
  sleep patterns. Specifically, those who slept the
  fewest hours per night weighed the most.

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Cortisol Fight Or Flight, Friend or Foe

• When we are deprived of sleep, the hormone
  cortisol is released at an increased level and
  makes us feel hungry even if we are full.
  Cortisol is a hormone that is commonly released
  in response to physical or emotional stress.
  Cortisol signals the body to load up with
  calories in anticipation of needing energy for
  fight or flight.

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• As a result of increased cortisol production,
  people who continue to lose sleep on a regular
  basis will tend to experience hunger even when
  they have had an adequate amount of calories.
• So more sleep means fewer problems with almost
  every aspect of weight loss, from the physiology
  to the psychology. How can that help you?

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SLEEP TIGHT, DONT LET THE BEDBUGS BITE

• Your mom was giving you good advice if she
  encouraged you to get plenty of sleep. When your
  head hits the pillow, your body and your mind use
  the down time to make repairs and get ready for a
  new day. Sleep is important to every aspect of
  body wellness.
• Its also clear that sleep loss can increase
  hunger and affect your bodys metabolism in a way
  that makes weight loss more difficult.

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• Sleep is the third prong of three-part
  approach to achieving and maintaining a healthy
  weight. Together with the kind of eating plan
  youll find in the Eat More, Weigh Less? Diet and
  regular exercise, these three legs give you a
  well-balanced foundation on which to build your
  life. When you arent sleeping enough, your body
  is unable to go into its normal deep sleep
  pattern. Deep sleep restores energy levels and
  losing it decreases growth hormone levels.
  (Growth hormone is a protein that helps regulate
  the bodys proportions of fat and muscle in
  adults.

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• I know it may seem counter-intuitive. Youd
  think that youd be burning more calories if you
  were awake than asleep. But with less sleep
  and therefore less growth hormone you hobble
  your bodys ability to lose fat and grow muscle.
• Need more information about Lose Weight While
  You Sleep?

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