Improve Your Dieting Success - Get Plenty of Sleep!

Sleep... we all know how important it is for our overall health.  Despite this it seems like many of us never get enough sleep.  Busy evenings after work and the need for a little 'down time' before heading to bed often result in many of us getting to sleep a lot later than we should.  Combine this with often having to get up early for work or having to get the kids ready for school, and we're lucky to get an adequate amount of sleep.

Previous research has shown us that a lack of sleep puts us at an increased risk for becoming overweight or obese.  This appears to be due to a number of factors including (1) altered metabolic hormones that effect our appetite, (2) changes in blood glucose metabolism, and (3) altered waking behaviors that lead to greater consumption of high-calorie foods and decreased exercise.  While this research clearly indicates that a lack of sleep can put us at risk for becoming overweight or obese, new research also suggests that a lack of sleep can affect our weight loss success when dieting.

A new weight loss study examined the impact of sleep restriction on body fat loss in individuals following a reduced-calorie diet.  In this small pilot study, weight loss investigators asked 10 overweight, adult volunteers to sleep in a sleep laboratory for two 14-day dieting periods.  During the first dieting period, study volunteers were allowed to sleep for 8.5 hours per night.  The volunteers were only allowed to sleep for 5.5 hours per night during the second 14-day diet period.  The weight loss researchers examined changes in body fat loss and lean tissue loss in addition to other measures.  The results of this study showed that:

• Body fat loss was greater when volunteers received 8.5 hours of sleep per night (~3 lbs) compared to when volunteers were restricted to 5.5 hours of sleep per night (~1.3 lbs). 
• Sleep restriction resulted in greater amounts of lean tissue loss (~5 lbs) compared to getting a full night's sleep (~3 lbs).
• Sleep restriction was linked to unfavorable changes in metabolic hormones resulting in an adaptation to caloric restriction, increased hunger, and reduced fat breakdown.

While this is clearly early research done in a very small group of volunteers, these fascinating research results clearly suggest that the amount of sleep we get can effect our weight loss efforts.  While the study volunteers successfully lost weight regardless of how much they slept, getting an inadequate amount of sleep appeared to cause dieters to lose more lean muscle mass than fat mass.  Additionally, a lack of sleep redued the amount of body fat lost.  Ideally, we want to lose fat mass and maintain lean muscle mass when dieting, which is one of the important reasons for exercising while dieting.  However, not getting enough sleep while dieting can make it difficult to achieve healthy weight and fat loss.

If you are on weight loss program or getting ready to start a diet plan, it is important to make sure you get enough sleep.  Getting inadequate amounts of sleep might reduce your weight loss success.

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