Sleep More To Lose Weight

Sleeping more to lose weight is an interesting topic that I just recently I have looked into. I'm sure most people would call this some urban legend, but surprisingly there have been studies done that show if one is deprived of sleep, in general one may eat up to 45% more calories. It's a no-brainer that sleep is good for you, but even now it's hard to imagine how it could directly effect weight loss. The key factors that most likely cause this phenomenon are two hormones, leptin and ghrelin. I'm pretty sure almost none of you have heard of either so I'll explain what each one does. Leptin is a hormone that sends signals to the brain once one is full. On the other hand, ghrelin stimulates ones apetite. When one deprives oneself of sleep, ghrelin levels start to rise, while Leptin levels start to drop. Obviously this spells disaster. Through this, one may eat for a good amount more than their body needs, but not knowing it because it took a very long time for your brain to recieve the signal to stop eating. If one is eating mainly fruits for their entire diet, it's not too big of a deal as they'll digest within a few hours, but if one is eating anything cooked, let alone animal products, they may take days to digest! For example, let's say a person deprives themselves of sleep for 1 whole week, and in turn each day eats 40% more food. By the end of the week, that person would have eaten nearly 3 more days worth of food! Now if these meals are very high in protein, and/or dairy, such as a steak, pizza,etc. each meal may take up to a week to exit your body. If one continues this cycle, your GI tract will be so stuffed up that you will literally have 20+ pounds of extra weight just sitting in your intestines! As one can see, whether or not you eat a lot of raw fruits and veggies, it will tremendously help you to get the proper amount of sleep. This means when you wake up, you don't have to force yourself out of bed, or wake up yawning. There are many factors that may also effect your sleep, but I will cover that some other time. So in short, just sleep :)    

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Raw Teen Ezine

Published bi-monthly for health conscious teens who want to know how to become healthy and vibrant the natural way!



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