It sounds too good to be true: Sleep more and you will lose weight.
But a new study shows that getting more than seven hours of sleep a night reduces sugar cravings and leads to weight loss.1
The correlation between sleep and weight loss is not as strange as it sounds. One-third of American adults are considered sleep-deprived, getting six hours or less of sleep each night. About the same percentage are obese.2
Researchers from King’s College in London set out to determine if improving sleep could help people lose weight.
They recruited 42 participants who routinely slept for less than seven hours a night. Half were encouraged to sleep an extra 90 minutes a night. And they were given sleep counseling to help achieve this.
The 21 other subjects kept their usual sleep schedule. They were considered the control group.
All participants recorded their sleep and diet for a week. The researchers also fitted them with wrist motion sensors that measured how long they slept each night.3
Sweet Dreams Mean Less Sugar
The researchers found that the subjects ate less sugar after a good night’s sleep. Sleep-extended participants reduced their sugar intake by up to 10 grams a day. That’s about 2 ½ teaspoons.4
The control group experienced no change in sugar intake.
Reducing sugar by 2 ½ teaspoons a day would result in a weight loss of more than 4 pounds a year.5
The study was published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Sugar: A Health Nightmare
Dr. Wendy Hall is a senior lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College. She was the principal investigator on the study.
“The fact that extending sleep led to a reduction in intake of free sugars suggests that a simple change in lifestyle may really help people to consume healthier diets,” she said.
Improving sleep is a great way to reduce cravings for sugar, which is linked to a medical textbook full of health conditions. Besides obesity, they include allergies, insomnia, manic depression, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.
One other thing…
As you know, we are big fans of eating organic. A study at the University of Buffalo found that organic foods help you sleep better.
The pesticides used in conventional farming rob your body of the sleep hormone melatonin. A melatonin deficiency can directly cause insomnia.
So going organic is a double win… It helps you get more sleep. And getting more sleep helps you eat less sugar.
Editor’s Note: Getting more sleep isn’t the only way to trigger serious weight loss. Discover the secret “switch” you can flip that tells your body to burn fat instead of store it… Discover all the details HERE.
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References:
1 https://www.livescience.com/61381-sleep-more-eat-better.html
2 https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
3 https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-01-longer-healthier-diet.html
4 http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/articles/units/convert-teaspoons-and-grams.php
5 http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/96109667