Welcome to common sense weight loss advice from Boston’s (South End’s) best Personal Training studio.
We’re taught losing weight is hard. You have to hustle. Non Stop. Up early. Work out. Sweat. Sacrifice.
It’s exhausting. If only there were a few easy things we could do to lose weight…
Like sleeping. Sleeping is easy.
Sleeping is easy
While Hustle culture glorifies sleep deprivation, is sleeping actually a non negotiable key to a healthy, happier, AND trimmer you?
The science is clear: Quality rest is essential to weight loss and weight maintenance. A synopsis of weight loss studies that monitored sleep (in addition to diet and exercise) found that better (less disturbed, more continuous), longer (7+ hours nightly) sleep increased the likelihood of meaningful weightloss by 33%.
And allll this time I thought sleep was getting in the way of my 24/7 grind. Hustle Culture is failing me.
But How
How does sleep improve weight loss outcomes? The reasons are myriad; let’s highlight a few.
- Sleep restriction increases hunger and appetite by altering metabolic and endocrine function; glucose and insulin sensitivity decreases and the evening levels of cortisol and ghrelin increase, while leptin decreases.
- Sleep duration may be associated with an increase in physiological hunger cues. Extending sleep duration past 6.5 hours for over 2 weeks resulted in participants consuming over 270 fewer daily calories.
- Sleeping only one fewer hour per night negatively altered fat metabolization.
- impaired sleep compromises serotonin (happiness hormone) production; that makes us more likely to reach for those sugary, salty foods that bump up serotonin production.
- Workouts get worse. Gym attendance, power output and recovery quality all decrease amongst the sleep deprived.
Remember…
You can’t lose weight properly while sleeping poorly. 70% of weight lost whilst sleeping poorly will come from lean muscle mass, not fat. When you’re under rested your body stubbornly holds on to fat.
But hustle culture says…
But Hustle Culture says my dream’s more valuable than sleep, that I can rest when I’m dead; sleep is for wimps; and although good things may come to those who rest, it’s only those things left behind by the hustlas.
Sleep is lazy; Grind 24/7.
Does it ever sound to you like hustle culture is over compensating for something?
Me, I’ll side with Dr Andrew Huberman who said, “Sleep is not a luxury; it is a non-negotiable biological necessity and the foundation of performance.”
Now Don’t quit your workouts and hop in the sack. Keep working out intelligently, but when you’re done go to bed early.
Your work will still be there in the morning… go to sleep.
Your binge watch can wait… rest.
Put down your doom scrolling. Close your eyes.
Don’t even finish this video. Put down your…
Related: No Bliss on the Couch: Sleep and Recovery · Is Sleep as Important as Working Out?