Sleep Your Way Thin!

When you are working out, do you ever hit a wall and you just can’t go any further? It’s not that your muscles are giving out and becoming fatigued, but your mind and body just want to fall on the floor and take a nap right then and there? This has happened to me several times. It’s because of lack of sleep. Sleep is important to our everyday lives and to our workouts and weight loss. You won’t lose those pounds unless you are getting quality sleep. I have been watching my “bedtime” and finding great results. So I am not preaching what I am not practicing.

Studies have been done for years on sleep patterns; the effects of good sleep and the side effects of bad sleep. Here are a few things that I have learned and am passing on to you.

Leptin and Ghrelin are hormones that affect our sleep, appetite, and metabolism. These work together to control your feelings of being full or satisfied. When not working properly, you feel hungry and feel a need to snack. This next statement is taken from Jillian Michaels’ book, Making the Cut. I like how she states this: “Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite, while Leptin produced in fat cells, sends a signal to the brain when you're full. When sleep is restricted Leptin levels go down and Ghrelin levels go up.”  So if you don’t get enough sleep these two can’t balance each other or work properly. Your brain won’t know the following day when your stomach is full and will just keep on wanting snacks. But in turn your body doesn’t always know the difference between what it wants or what it needs. In several other university studies, the subjects that were found to have slept the least, carried the highest percentage of body fat and weighed more than those with proper sleep.

Human Growth Hormone or HGH is produced during that deepest realm of sleep. The majority of us don't go to this level. Our lifestyles are too busy for sleep. But growth hormone, in adults, is a protein hormone, which regulates your fat and muscle proportions and is very important to a healthy lifestyle. This will help stabilize your fat loss and muscle growth if you are getting a good deep sleep.

So how much sleep do you need, you ask? You should be getting NO LESS than eight (8) hours of sleep a night. 8-10 would be best. I have read several articles in fitness magazines, during the training process for fitness competitions, our favorite contestants will sleep around 12 hours a night. Since the majority of us aren’t just sleeping, eating and working out, so this may not be feasible.  But just proves again how beneficial it can be to our weight loss.

I have always been one that loves a great afternoon catnap. This is a great way to “catch up” on sleep. Contrary to what you may have heard, you can catch up, or make your brain think that you have. I have a harder time with the shorter naps. But during the day I sink down in my chair at my work desk and take a 15 min. power nap.

Now if you are a stay at home mom, you should be napping when your children do. I know your thinking; this is your time for laundry/house work without the kids bugging. But at some point in your life you have to make time for yourself and this is the perfect time.  I have one day off from my full time job and I take a good long nap in the afternoon. I try not to make myself feel guilty, that I should be doing something else, but remember it’s just implementing another step into great fitness and weight loss. 

Continue to make sure you are hydrated. You will actually have a better nights sleep if you hydrated. Your body dehydrates when you sleep naturally so if you aren’t making up for that during the day you just can’t get a deep sleep. Your organs won’t be functioning properly.

Try and read for about a half hour or so before bed or use this time to journal. The motion of your eyes, back and forth across a book, signals to your brain to slow down and that’s why you can get so tired reading. If you watch an action movie before bed, you be wound up and not ready to fall asleep causing you to stay up later. Read a book, preferably on health and fitness to gain more knowledge, and slow your brain.

Try and get some sleep for faster weight loss and muscle gain.

Good night my fitness heroes, good night! Angie Taylor