Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
We live in an age where sleep is an aspect of our lives we compromise on more and more.
Sometimes through our own behaviors, we have ALL said “just one more episode” when watching Schitts Creek, despite knowing it would take our sleep from seven hours…to six and a half.
Or…many people struggle with their sleep due to more intricate issues like anxiety and stress. In fact in the UK during the first Lockdown in 2020, Britons suffering from sleep loss due to worrying increased from one in six to one in four, with Key Workers, Mothers, and people from Minority Backgrounds being the worst affected [1].
We know that Mental Health issues are on the rise, outside of the Global Pandemic. In fact, this is the World Health Organizations summary of the state of the Worlds Mental Health as of 2017:
“Mental health conditions are increasing worldwide. Mainly because of demographic changes, there has been a 13% rise in mental health conditions and substance use disorders in the last decade (to 2017). Mental health conditions now cause 1 in 5 years lived with disability. Around 20% of the world’s children and adolescents have a mental health condition, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. Approximately one in five people in post-conflict settings have a mental health condition.
Mental health conditions can have a substantial effect on all areas of life, such as school or work performance, relationships with family and friends and ability to participate in the community. Two of the most common mental health conditions, depression and anxiety, cost the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year.
Despite these figures, the global median of government health expenditure that goes to mental health is less than 2%.” [2]
From this information, it is fair to conclude that as our Mental Health deteriorates, so too does our sleep.
And this links to increased body weight.
As the study “Sleep and Obesity” from 2011 states:
“According to recent estimates, the worldwide prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980. This obesity epidemic has been paralleled in modern society by a trend of reduced sleep duration. Poor sleep quality, which is often associated with overall sleep loss, has also become a frequent complaint.”[3].
Please don’t misunderstand me.
Sleep is certainly a major aspect of every human’s life, but it doesn’t dictate whether or not you gain weight - eating too many calories does.
But Sleep, or lack thereof, is oftentimes the reason that you might be consuming more calories.
And that is what we are going to unpick in this article.
I’m going to show you some of the risk factors associated with lack of sleep, how that will then impact your sleep - and crucially a plan of action to help you improve your sleep.
Table of Contents for: Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
The Link between Sleep, Depression and Weight Gain
The link between Sleep, Stress and Weight Gain
The link between Sleep, Hunger Hormones, and Weight Gain
The link between Sleep, Reduced Movement, and Weight Gain
How To Improve Your Sleep
Over the years that I have been working as a Personal Trainer, one thing that very few people seem to have a handle is a good, solid, sleep routine.
And the second I bring it up with them, they get very defensive.
I have heard things like:
“I may go to bed at 2 am but I sleep really well”
“Lack of sleep just doesn’t affect me”
“But I must have “me” time”
And from Matthew Walkers brilliant book “Why We Sleep” he states this:
“People have said to me I’ll sleep when I’m dead. And that is exactly right…because lack of sleep in one’s life means that you will indeed die sooner”
The benefits of sleep sit directly opposite to many of the causes of weight gain and obesity.
We know that factors like depression, stress, poorer health, lack of confidence, lack of creativity, and lack of movement, are all things that can lead to increased body weight in an individual.
And they are all aspects of your life that sleep can improve.
The Link Between Sleep and Mental Health and Weight Gain:
According to the Sleep Foundation:
“It is becoming clear that there is a bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental health [4] in which sleeping problems may be both a cause and consequence of mental health problems.”
Cause and consequence.
The later stage of sleep, known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, a stage that you will visit up to 4-6 times as an adult has profound effects on your emotions and health.
The amygdala is part of the brain, that is responsible for your emotional memories. It is responsible for giving emotions meaning and memory. It is also responsible for your responses to your emotions.
All of your emotions.
In a study by Matthew Walker, [5] they took a group of people and split them in two. Both Groups were shown emotional Stimuli, and then one group was allowed to sleep, the other was sleep deprived.
As you can see in the Figure below the sleep deprivation group showed much higher activity in the amygdala:
Concluding that: “Without sleep, however, amygdala-mPFC connectivity was decreased, potentially negating top-down control and resulting in an overactive amygdala.”
But why does Depression or even an Overactive Amygdyla due to lack of sleep equal weight gain?
Have you ever heard the term “emotional eating”?
I think we all know what emotional eating is, although there isn’t an actual medical definition. I would describe it as:
The behaviour of consuming any food, as a direct result of an emotional experience you have had happened to you at any time in your past, or anticipate might happen to you in the future and seeking short-term comfort in this behavior.
In fact, I bet you have used it…I think we all have at one time or another.
Depression in and of itself doesn’t mean you will gain weight but there is a correlation.
About 43% of Adults with Depression are Obese according to the CDC, and those who are diagnosed with depression are more than likely to be overweight.
So you have to ask yourself. What is coming first? Depression, Emotional Eating or Lack of Sleep?
Well, I can’t sit here and tell you to just stop being depressed.
I can’t sit here and tell you to just stop eating emotionally.
But I can ask you to build a better structure around your bedtime, protect your sleep in a much better way…and can then see if that has a positive impact on the other factors at play.
The Link Between Sleep and STRESS and Weight Gain:
Stress impacts hunger in a number of ways. In fact, stress is an emotional term we give to a hormonal response pulsing around our body. This hormone is called Cortisol.
Cortisol can cause havoc in our systems.
When we experience stress, our adrenal glands on top of our Kidneys release insulin into our bloodstream, which means that there is more Glucose in our system.
This is fine when you are running from a bear - or a whirlwhind.
But repetitive exposure in the body to Cortisol can and will lead to weight gain - because that glucose needs to be used, or it gets stored in the body…and typically that occurs around the midsection.
A 2015 study [6] found that when people are stressed your metabolism is slower.
In the modern-day, a threat can be a bad news article, an unwanted text, bills to pay, just a scroll on Social Media. We don’t run from bears anymore.
What we do instead is sit at our desk fuming at the situation we are in, or we turn to our fridges in order to cope with the emotional feeling we are experiencing.
How does Sleep reduce Stress?
Having already established that REM sleep helps you reduce the activity in your amygdala each night and in turn helps you with your mental health, it stands to reason that it would also help you with the emotion of stress.
In fact, here is an image from the American Psychological Association [7] that demonstrates the negative effect of stress on people if they get less than 8 hours of sleep a night:
Looking at that list of symptoms of stress, outside the norms of being an emotional eater, many of them link directly to other factors that lead to weight gain.
Lacking interest, motivation, or energy - we know that boredom equals the consumption of food in many people, combined with the lack of motivation and energy leading to a lower metabolism each day.
Skipping Exercise - this will result in fewer calories burned, less muscle on the body and therefore opens up the potential to unwanted weight gain
The Link Between Sleep, Hunger Hormones, and Weight Gain
Your appetite is controlled by two very receptive hormones.
Leptin and Grehlin.
Leptin is the hormone that is responsible for your stomach telling your brain that you are full.
Grehlin is the hormone that is responsible for your stomach telling your brain (hypothalamus) that you are hungry,
In the ideal world we want our brains to be very recpetive to Leptin, and have low levels of Grehlin, leading to lower hunger and increased satiety once we eat.
Think of Grehlin as this:
A little gremlin that is easily influenced and affected by nearly everything that goes on in your body.
Factors that increase Grehlin in your body are:
Weight Extremes, both anorexia and obesity alter Grehlin
Low Muscle Mass
Lack of Protein in your Diet
Yo-Yo Dieting
Eating too few calories for too long a time
and, yup you’ve guessed it:
Lack of Sleep
Added to that there are many factors that cause Leptin levels to decrease, or more, can lead our brains to just not recognize it.
And therefore you may never feel full after eating…even though you technically are, which will result in more calories consumed.
When this is the case you are “Leptin Resistant” and to try and reverse this you should:
Exercise more
Eat less highly processed foods
Increase your Soluble fiber intake (fruits, vegetables, whole grains)
Increase your protein intake
and, yup you’ve guessed it:
Improve your sleep
How are Grehlin and Leptin affected by Sleep?
In 2004, Taheri et al, took 1,024 participants from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study [8] and tested their blood each morning for Grehlin and Leptin levels.
The study found a correlation between lack of sleep in duration and increased Grehlin and lack of sleep in duration and decreased Leptin.
As shown here:
The link between Sleep, Reduced Movement, and Weight Gain
The Sleep Foundation states: “Losing sleep can result in having less energy for exercise and physical activity” [9]
If I refer you back to the image I shared with you earlier, from the American Psychological Association, there were two symptoms of stress that I bought to your attention in terms of how stress affects your ability to affect your weight.
Lacking interest, motivation, or energy and Skipping Exercise
This all points towards “prescribed movement” and it stands to reason that you are going to be less likely to head to the gym if you are sleep deprived.
No one wants to see this:
But there are other forms of movement that help significantly with your weight loss efforts.
The Daily Step Count.
And let’s face it, those who are tired are less likely to walk, less likely to fidget, and therefore are less likely to burn enough calories in the day to help them with their weight loss efforts. Therefore lack of sleep reduces your metabolism.
How does reduced sleep mean fewer calories burned each day?
When we look at your Metabolism - the name given to the body’s ability to burn calories - we can see it is broken down into four main sections:
The two I want to draw your attention to today are:
NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and EAT - Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.
These two categories are basically the calories you burn through movement. NEAT is your daily movement outside of prescribed activity, and EAT is your prescribed activity.
Therefore, if you aren’t moving, if you aren’t getting to the gym, then you are burning fewer calories each day. NEAT is 15% of your Metabolism and is the reason we Personal Trainers ask you so very often to increase your step count. More steps equal more calories burned which equals an impact on your weight.
Aside from all the other amazing benefits walking can bring you.
Added to this, the more tired you are, the less intensity you will be able to put into your training.
There have been a variety of studies on this.
This study [9] took 10 male athletes, deprived them of sleep for 30 hours, and tested their Sprinting ability - which was indeed reduced significantly.
This study [10] took Runners and Volleyball players and tested their time to exhaustion after being deprived of sleep for one night. It concluded: “We suggest that one-night sleep deprivation may reduce exercise performance by decreasing exercise minute ventilation and time to exhaustion. We also indicate that sleep loss may decrease more the performance of volleyball players than that of runners.”
It would is my belief that Volleyball players tire quicker because the sport would require much more cognitive work combined with physical work. It is a less repetitive movement pattern and therefore you are having to make more decisions relating to the execution of skill as well as your physical fitness.
Looking at these studies, it is fair to conclude that lack of sleep will result in less time being active, less intensity when being active and therefore not helping your overall goal of being able to sustain a healthy weight in the long term.
How To Improve Your Sleep
Now that we have looked into the effects that not having enough sleep can have on you, its probably a good idea to look at how to actually help you to get to sleep so that you can start implementing some better behaviors for your bedtime.
Plan to Get 8 Hours Sleep A Night
All of the studies I have looked into for this article state that the optimal time for sleep is indeed 8 hours. This is because our bodies go through sleep cycles - about 4-6 a night.
NREM sleep or Light Sleep is broken into three stages, and in one cycle to get through all three stages it can take about 45mins.
REM sleep or Deep Sleep can last between 10-60mins. Giving you a total, across 6 cycles, of about 8 hours worth of sleep.
The whole pattern of your sleep is known as your “sleep architecture” and as you can imagine, we all have a different architecture - but bearing these guidelines in mind will certainly help you.
Sleep with the Sun
Have you ever heard of a circadian rhythm? This is your body’s natural timer, that correlates with the sun.
As the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences states:
“Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. These natural processes respond primarily to light and dark and affect most living things, including animals, plants, and microbes. Chronobiology is the study of circadian rhythms. One example of a light-related circadian rhythm is sleeping at night and being awake during the day.” [11]
Many people put great value on living in harmony with their circadian rhythm and making sure they get up when the sun comes up and go to sleep when the sun comes down - and it makes sense that it is what the human race has done since time began.
So if you are lucky enough to be able to do this…then I strongly recommend it. If you are a Shift Worker or a New Mum, then of course this will be more difficult for you to implement…but at times in your life when you can…make this a priority in the best way possible.
Exercise Regularly
Exercise makes you tired, which makes you sleep in a more restful state. By sleeping in a more restful state you will get much more quality sleep and feel more rested when you wake up again.
Exercise also helps stabilize your mood and decompress your mind which will help you drift off into NREM Sleep.
Listen to a Sleep Story
Why do we read to children before bed? One because it’s good for their development…but also to help them wind down after an exciting day of discovering the world. Yet as adults we simply think that we don’t need to do the same.
We give our brains no space to decompress from whatever we were doing in the evening to hitting the pillow. And then we just toss and turn and get frustrated that we can’t seem to drift off.
Sleep Stories are excellent at two things.
Distracting your mind and taking them on a journey
Helping you meditate before you sleep
I’m awful at keeping up with the habit of meditating - despite the fact I know how good it is for me.
Being able to quieten the mind during the day is something that takes discipline and repetition - and my days lack structure for that to be able to occur.
Therefore I do my meditation as I drift off to sleep - and I kill two birds with one stone.
Might not be optimal. But it’s certainly possible for me - and I do these with Sleep Stories.
I can’t remember how I first discovered them…but I have been listening to them very consistently on the Calm App for nearly 5 years now - and have journeyed in my mind’s eye to some of the most amazing places the world has to offer - and it has benefited my sleep beyond words.
Sleep Stories do take a while to get used to…and they do require an element of patience. For a while I used to fight them so much, I used to find them intrusive and frustrating…but just like meditation the more you practice the better the effect of them.
So if the Sleep Story doesn’t work right away - the issue is not likely to be the story (although we all find different voices soothing and not so soothing). Work through it - the benefits of being able to calm the mind to ensure you drift off peacefully are very much worth it.
If you want to try a Sleep Story…luckily I have recorded a few myself for you to enjoy.
Listen to a Sleep Meditation
These are very similar to Sleep Stories but rather than distract your imagination they are designed to focus you on your breathing, using suggestive language to help you calm your mind and drift away into NREM Sleep.
Meditation is a very powerful tool to help you learn to quieten the mind and help you move away from the stress of your day.
Here is a selection of Sleep Meditations I recorded for my clients.
If the Sleep Stories are too distracting these might help you in a very similar way.
Get Off Your Phone 60mins before Bedtime
Your phone releases Blue Light. In fact, most screens do. And this blue light directly stops your brain from releasing melatonin, which is the hormone required to induce sleep.
It’s great to have this Blue Light during the daytime, as it can be helpful to keep our brains switched on, however it is not helpful before bedtime.
In fact, many screens these days have a “Night Shift” Mode which takes out the blue light and makes your screen look yellow. I have this turned up all day every day on both my iPhone, my MacBook, and my iPad.
It has got to the point where when I look at a phone without this on…I feel like I need sunglasses to look at it. I also make sure my TV Screens have their backlight and Brightness turned down. It takes some getting used to in the beginning. But is so worth it on the other side of a great night’s sleep.
Reduce Caffeine late in the day
Now by late in the day I really mean late in the morning like 11 am.
And by Caffeine I’m not just talking about Coffee. I’m talking about all caffeinated drinks, including Coke Zero and Cups of Tea.
Let me explain why.
The standardized recommendation for caffeine for an adult each day is just 400mg.
Caffeine has a half-life of 5 hours. This means that if you drink a cup of coffee with 300mg of Caffeine in it, like a Starbucks Venti Americano, at 11 am, you still have 150mg of Caffeine in your system at 4 pm. Wind this on further, and at 9 pm you still have 75mg of Caffeine in your system - and at 2 am the next day 37.5mg of Caffeine in your system.
Now I know many people, that believe Caffeine doesn’t affect them. This is certainly not the case. About 10% of the world has the “Caffeine Gene” according to a 2011 study.
If you are still able to consume caffeine and drift off to sleep then that’s great, but the effects of the caffeine will happen in your sleep. The caffeine will affect your ability to get into the crucial deep restorative REM sleep [12].
Reduce Alcohol Intake
Sorry, Homer. This just isn’t true…especially if you struggle with fatigue.
Much like Caffeine, Alcohol also inhibits that all-important restorative REM Sleep.
Although alcohol can induce sleepiness and is a relaxant, you will get into a vicious cycle if you rely on it for sleep, because of how it impacts your ability to have deep REM Sleep.
In Conclusion
Sleep is one of the single most important pillars of a healthy happy life. Away from your body weight, sleep is a critical part of your human behaviour.
Now I am acutely aware that sleep cannot be afforded to us all in a fair manner. My fiancee works in Emergency Services, and she has looked into the negative effect that shift work has on your health. Poor Sleep behaviour isn’t the sole reason that shift workers’ health is negatively affected, but it is certainly one of the largest.
I am also aware that many people struggle to sleep for much deeper psychological reasons pertaining to something from their past.
And of course, as I have mentioned previously, new parents are always going to struggle with their sleep behaviour for obvious reasons.
What I would ask of you is this.
Give yourself a chance. Many people do struggle to sleep, but they also don’t do anything to help the root causes of this either.
I once heard that the bedroom should only be used for two things.
Sleep and Sex.
If you want to make your Weight Loss journey as successful as possible, as sustainable as possible and you want to get the most out of your training, then stop looking for the BCAA supplements, stop looking for the quick fixes, stop looking for the optimal amount of nutrition and for crying out loud….PRIORITISE YOUR SLEEP.
If you get this in place first…I bet everything falls into complete insignificance.
Sleep and Sex.
If you remember one thing from this article.
Remember that.
Did You Find This Useful?
Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
I work with clients all over the world in my One on One Coaching Program called The Strong & Confident Program.
A New Program Designed To Get You Stronger, Healthier & more confident than ever before.
My aim with the friends I work with is to give them so much more out of their fitness by focussing them on the process of getting stronger and therefore making them more confident.
Just like with this article - where I like to give as much help to you as I can
My approach to online training is no different. The whole program is about you - how best can I serve you, and therefore help you in the best way possible.
Just like my client Tim who has nailed the last 5 months.
We actually worked very hard on two things I have referenced in this article with Tim. We increased his Steps (NEAT) and we improved his sleep.
Tim is getting married next year, and he is trying to make sure that he feels his most confident & strong on what will be a truly happy day. Tim has trained with me in person for a number of years until in 2021 he decided to take me up on my offer of working online.
And by making that switch…he really started getting some results. In 5months he has lost nearly 2 stone in weight, and every lift he is doing has improved. This coincided with asking Tim to get more steps in each day…and now he is on an average of 15k a day….and his sleep has improved leaps and bounds.
He still enjoys a beer at the weekend - and we both have a love of well Barista’d coffee.
But he has learned how to still enjoy meals out with his lovely fiancee (soon-to-be wife) as well as keeping on track with his goals of feeling stronger and more confident ready to tie the knot.
It goes without saying how utterly proud of him I am.
But more importantly…he is proud of himself.
And there is no better success than that.
If you want to get a Free Month of Coaching with me then hit the Learn More button below and apply to work with me on the next page.
Thank you so much for being here and reading my work.
Speak again soon,
Coach Adam
References:
the Guardian. 2021. Coronavirus lockdown caused sharp increase of insomnia in UK. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/02/coronavirus-lockdown-increase-insomnia-uk-sleep-mothers> [Accessed 24 May 2021].
Who.int. 2021. Mental health. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_2> [Accessed 24 May 2021].
Beccuti, G., & Pannain, S. (2011). Sleep and obesity. Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care, 14(4), 402–412. https://doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0b013e3283479109
Scott, A. J., Webb, T. L., & Rowse, G. (2017). Does improving sleep lead to better mental health? A protocol for a meta-analytic review of randomised controlled trials. BMJ open, 7(9), e016873.https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016873
Walker, M. P., & van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. Psychological bulletin, 135(5), 731–748.https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570
Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Habash DL, Fagundes CP, et al. Daily stressors, past depression, and metabolic responses to high-fat meals: a novel path to obesity. Biol Psychiatry. 2015;77(7):653-660. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.05.018
https://www.apa.org. 2021. Stress and sleep. [online] Available at: <https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/sleep> [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004 Dec;1(3):e62. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062. Epub 2004 Dec 7. PMID: 15602591; PMCID: PMC535701.
Skein M, Duffield R, Edge J, Short MJ, Mündel T. Intermittent-sprint performance and muscle glycogen after 30 h of sleep deprivation. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Jul;43(7):1301-11. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31820abc5a. PMID: 21200339
Azboy O, Kaygisiz Z. Effects of sleep deprivation on cardiorespiratory functions of the runners and volleyball players during rest and exercise. Acta Physiol Hung. 2009 Mar;96(1):29-36. doi: 10.1556/APhysiol.96.2009.1.3. PMID: 19264040.
Nigms.nih.gov. 2021. Circadian Rhythms. [online] Available at: <https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/Circadian-Rhythms.aspx> [Accessed 3 June 2021].
Sleepfoundation.org. 2021. Caffeine’s Connection to Sleep Problems | Sleep Foundation. [online] Available at: <https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/caffeine-and-sleep> [Accessed 3 June 2021].