How Safe is Your Waistline From This Silent Diet Destroyer?

When it comes to packing on the pounds, most of us know exactly what we have to do…

Eat smarter. Eat less. And exercise more.

Simple, right?

Then, why does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 69% of Americans are overweight or obese (1)?

Obviously, a lot of cultural factors go into creating these weight problems, but surely we must be missing a key ingredient to this fat storing equation.

According to new evidence, yes, that may very well be the case…

A growing body of research suggests that SLEEP -of all things- may also be closely tied to obesity.

…and researchers are eyeballing this new discovery as a leverage point to tackling a problem that has everyone in the health field concerned.

Let’s Examine the Evidence

In a country hooked on getting things done, it’s not unusual to burn the midnight oil or get up a little early and hit the ground running.

In 1998, as last century came to a close, about 35% of adult Americans were logging the prescribed 8 hours of sleep, but by 2005, the National Sleep Foundation reported that number dropped to 26% (2).

Perhaps the most revealing study concerning links between sleep and obesity is the Nurses’ Health Study, in which researchers observed 68,000 women over the course of 16 years, tracking a wide range of variables from their sleep habits to their diet to their weight and more.

In the beginning of this study, none of the subject were obese.

However, after 16 years, the study orchestrators noticed that women who got less than 5 hours a sleep a night were 15% more likely to be obese and were 30% more likely to have put on 30 pounds or more.

Got your attention? But, still the question remains…

Why Does Sleep Deprivation Make You Fatter?

If you had a choice between exercise and sleep for your health and waistline, hands down, sleep is the winner…here are the 5 reasons why:

Reason #1

Not getting enough sleep makes you RAVENOUSLY hungry and skyrockets your cravings for the worst food possible. How?

According to a study published in the Public Library of Science, impaired sleep causes leptin, your “I’m full” hormone to go DOWN by 15.5%.

…which triggers your “I’m hungry” hormone, ghrelin, to go UP by 14.9%.

This sends your appetite wildly out of control and you wake up starving, ready to binge on the WORST foods within reach.

Reason #2

Remember the “I’m full” hormone, leptin?

It also controls your metabolism by influencing your thyroid hormone.

So when you don’t get enough shut-eye and leptin goes down, your thyroid also goes down.

…which causes your metabolic rate (how many calories you burn at rest) to absolutely PLUNGE!

Reason #3

Sleep deprivation also supresses how sensitive your cells are to insulin.

If you are LESS insulin sensitive, your body needs to crank out MORE insulin to clear any excess blood sugar that may be floating around.

And more insulin causes a double fat-making whammy by telling your liver to turn the food you eat into fat AND by locking fat in your fat cells so it can’t be released to be burned.

Reason #4

Impaired sleep also damages your brain, cognitive abilities and mood.

Studies have shown when we sleep, our brain flushes out potent neurotoxins that are normal by-products of our waking activity.

But if you let those by-products accumulate without “taking out the garbage”…

Inflammation and oxidative stress run rampant, causing damage to your brain and putting you at risk of developing age-related diseases, such Alzheimer’s.

Reason #5

Lack of good sleep ages you rapidly by robbing you of the small window of opportunity during which your primary “youth” hormone works its magic.

We’re talking about growth hormone –your master rejuvenation hormone that mostly only comes out at night, helping you re-build and repair and keeping you young.

Okay, Connection Established – But, What Can You Do About It?

If you think about it, this may actually be great news for a lot of people.

Maybe even you.

With so many struggling to figure out how to control their weight, this may be the missing link in their fight for fat-loss and health.

If that rings true, here are some tips for getting better sleep you can apply NOW:

• Obviously, if you’re a coffee or tea drinker, avoid caffeine late in the day.
• Establish consistent sleep times to get your circadian clock in rhythm and maximize health hormone response.
• If your days are mellow and devoid of activity, go do some work in the garden or hit the gym for a tiring workout. The more energy you expend, the more likely your lids will snap shut when the head hits the pillow.
• No computer or television before bedtime. Bright screens can trick your mind into thinking its daytime. If checking email is unavoidable, download software like f.lux or something similar, which gives off a warmer, toned down light more reminiscent of indoor light during the nighttime hours.
• Don’t eat anything after 3 hrs before bedtime.
• Keep water by your bed to avoid having a reason to get up once you lie down.
• Keep your bedroom in total darkness. Get heavier curtains if yours don’t keep out enough light.
• Play tracks with mellow music that makes you sleepy, sounds of nature, or ambient sounds.
• Read fiction before bed to let the mind wander away. Once you get that sensation that you could fall asleep immediately by closing your eyes, put the book away.
• Take up meditation. This can help you learn to calm racing thoughts, which might be keeping you up at night. In fact, research shows deep relaxation techniques throughout the day improve nightly sleep (7).

These Tips Come with Fair Warning…

These strategies and tips WON’T boost metabolism and fight aging if you are eating the WRONG foods…as most people unknowingly do.

Your metabolism will come to a halt, your energy will plummet, your thinking will slow and the ravages of aging will set in regardless of how much shut-eye you get.

So be sure to read over the 3-steps on the next page that show you how to spark your metabolic fire and keep it burning white hot 24-7…

Resources:

1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
2. http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-polls-data/sleep-in-america-poll/2005-adult-sleep-habits-and-styles
3. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sleep/
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15908441
5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18977973
6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12056178
7. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609072719.htm
8. http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2005/melatonin