Sleeping affects weight loss: Struggles with Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Y's Guy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

I was reading a couple studies both show that sleep affects weight loss. One said if you don't get enough sleep you are more likely to gain weight. The other said if you sleep too much you will gain weight. I think that these studies combined prove one thing; weight gain is a symptom of a bigger issue.

Weight loss is not just determined by sleeping just the right amount. It is determined by whether you are depressed and sleeping longer amounts or whether you are stressing your body out because you don't value yourself enough to get a good night sleep.

All too often we try a new fad or to try to fix a symptom and not fix the main problem. We think that sleeping the perfect amount will make us lose weight... heck, it even might help you to lose a little weight, but to truly lose weight and be healthy we must address the underlying problem. You have to ask yourself are you important enough to take care of yourself... if not how do you change your opinion of yourself?

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Quote:

You have to ask yourself are you important enough to take care of yourself... if not how do you change your opinion of yourself?

If you are constantly taking care of others, you never have to ask yourself that question.

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

Y's Guy wrote:

One said if you don't get enough sleep you are more likely to gain weight. The other said if you sleep too much you will gain weight.

I would think that the more you sleep, you aren't eating, so you would lose weight!!

I agree though, and it's makes sense, that if you don't get enough sleep you are more likely to gain weight, because your are up longer, and get irritable, and cranky, and all the other emotions and miseries that go with not enough sleep, so what's left but to eat to comfort yourself!?!?

Y's Guy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

The study showed that sleeping longer than 9 hours a day is bad for you because your metabolism is slower during that time and excessive sleep is a sign of depression and depression causes weight gain too.

too little sleep shows signs of elevated stress and less energy. Stress causes the body to store fat and without energy, the work needed to lose weight is less likely to be acheived.

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

So you said sleeping longer than 9 hours is too much... but how much is too little?

Ziggy · **Site Rank:** Healthy BBF

This is what I think...

Your body does miraculous things while you sleep, fixing and repairing all sorts of things, I read that somewhere, so I would say the body needs 8 hours of sleep, no less. I would also say, that if you get 8 and 1/2 or 9 hours of sleep each night, you would just get more benefits from it.

I know there are people who get less sleep than that, and they say they feel great. But it's the long term effects of not enough sleep that will catch up to them someday. Get your 8 hours of sleep. It's very important!!

Y's Guy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

In the study they said people that get less than 6 hours of sleep a night are at risk for over-taxing the body.

In my personal opinion, I think it all depends on the person and their age. As we get older our bodies need less amounts of sleep. It becomes more efficient at doing all the things Ziggy eluded to in her post. I think a good test is to go to bed at your normal time of night on a day when you don't need to get up early and do not use the alarm clock. When you wake up that is how much time you need to sleep... unless of course you are running to the bathroom. An hour grace in either direction is okay but anything more and you might be getting into the deprivation of excess sleep zones.

tammy · **Site Rank:** Site Admin

Y's Guy wrote:

I think a good test is to go to bed at your normal time of night on a day when you don't need to get up early and do not use the alarm clock. When you wake up that is how much time you need to sleep... unless of course you are running to the bathroom. An hour grace in either direction is okay but anything more and you might be getting into the deprivation of excess sleep zones.

So, what if I do this test and I wake up 10 hours after I go to bed? I would think 10 hours would be way too much!

Y's Guy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

everyone's body is different... If you are feeling good and healthy and do not have a lot of stress in your life it could just mean that your body needs a lot of sleep. If it is a high number I would try and do it two or three days in a row and take the average of the three... maybe your body is compensating from a lack of sleep from your normal sleep patterns. A couple days in a row would let your body adjust and give you an accurate assessment.

joebert · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Quote:

I think a good test is to go to bed at your normal time of night on a day when you don't need to get up early and do not use the alarm clock. When you wake up that is how much time you need to sleep.

I would get different results depending on my activities for the week/month before I did that test though.
What if I happened to have an extra stressfull, or unusually easy week at work before doing this ?

It would be like filling two identical buckets full of water, drilling a different sized hole in the bottom of each bucket, and determining how often both buckets need to be refilled based on how fast the water drains out of one bucket or the other.

If you time the small holed bucket, the large holed bucket will end up being empty.
If you time the large holed bucket, you will end up overfilling the small holed bucket.

Now, if you worked harder than usual the week before a two week vacation so you wouldn't be swamped with work when you get back, then did this test every morning during your vacation, you could add up all of the hours you've slept and divide that by the number of days, and probably get a fairly balanced number of hours to sleep over that 2 week period.

Y's Guy · **Site Rank:** Moderator

Some days you will need more sleep than others... the body only holds like a two day sleep bank after that you cannot recover your missing sleep so after 2 days of recovery your body should be where it normally is. If you don't have a regular routine you won't have a regular sleeping pattern. That is why working shift work is the worse kind of job as far as stress on the body.

Stress does play a role on sleep patterns but it also plays a role in weight loss/gain too. Learning stress management and coping techniques can greatly improve your weight loss/gain goals and ability to keep your sleeping patterns regular and healthy.

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