Sigh....I am about to show you something that is difficult for some to believe even when it is backed up by medical science. Yes! You can lose weight while you sleep. Disbelieve at your own peril.
Scientists and doctors have long known that many hormones are affected by sleep. Some of these hormones, such as leptin and ghrelin can affect our appetite. Take a case in point. Have you ever experienced a sleepless night and then the next day, no matter what you ate you won't feel full and satisfied? Well, it is because of these hormones.
Ghrelin, stimulates your appetite and makes you hungry whereas Leptin, sends a signal to the brain to tell you that you are full during a meal. So one makes you hungry while the other makes you feel full.
So how do these 2 hormones correlate then? Well, lack of sleep will reduce leptin levels, which means that you will still feel hungry after a normal meal which will usually satisfy you. Having not enough sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you will eat more than you normally do and that spelled trouble if you want to lose fat. That means you will gain weight if you do not have enough sleep. Getting the drift now?
It is a known fact that those who sleep less are often overweight compared to those who enjoy blissful shut eyes.
In several scientific studies and researches showed invariable results test human participants whose sleep are controlled. Their leptin levels went down and ghrelin levels went up. Their appetite therefore increased proportionally. Their desire for high carbohydrate, calorie-dense foods increased by a whopping 45%. Can you beat that?
So the findings definitely suggest that if you are on a diet and a workout program with the aim of slimming down or losing weight, you must have enough sleep. Eight to nine hours a day is the normal recommendation.
Sleep not only recharges you, it helps you to lose weight, build muscles, repair tissues and boost immunity. So if this article bores you ....well....go ahead and sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Chris Chew is a personal trainer and count actors, pageant winners, models and other celebrities as his clients. He runs a fitness training school in Singapore at
Singapore Personal Trainers and is the author of "Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast." See his books at
Lose Fat Build Muscles Quickly!
