Day 47: Weight loss and sleep

Due to my excessive tiredness and inability to focus, I found a great article about how sleep effects our weight loss.  Since right now all I am able to do really well is sleep, I thought I'd write about that.

Today I am home alone with the kids, Gary went to work, and the past few days he has been home with me.  So, fortunately the kids slept 2 hours longer today than yesterday.  I had a small burst of energy, and I thought, I should clean the house, but instead I decided to bundle the kids up and take advantage of the sunshine.  So, I bundled them up, and wanted to lay down and go to sleep.  I can't believe how mono can affect me so badly.  I brought out a chair and let them play in the snow.  They climbed around, we squired the snow with water bottles filled with food coloring and water, and blew some bubbles.  Mama feels like she just finished the Iron Man.  I brought them back in after they were good, tired and cold, fed them a quick and easy lunch with hot chocolate and sent them up to bed.  Now I am writing quickly so that I can sleep until I wake up.  So, here is a great article I found about sleep and weight loss.  I found it very useful, and good to read when all I want to do is sleep!  Keep in mind that on average you only burn 50 calories an hour while you sleep.  

You can find the article online by clicking here or read below.
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Weight Loss Hormones: Ghrelin and Leptin

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By Kathryn Vercillo

Ghrelin and leptin are hormones in the body that you should know a little something about if you're interested in the topic of weight loss. Basically, ghrelin and leptin are hormones that we all have but we each have different levels of them. These hormones are related to weight loss as well as to oursleep patterns and in some ways form the link between our internal urges to sleep and to eat. Understanding how ghrelin and leptin work in the body can help us to understand and moderate these urges so we can engage in proper healthy weight loss.

Ghrelin and leptin are both produced in the body. It has been found that thinner people have higher levels of ghrelin production during certain nighttime hours which is lacking in people who suffer from obesity. People who fail to sleep properly over-stimulate their ghrelin production which increases the desire for food. Simultaneously, lack of sleep reduces the production of leptin which is the body's appetite suppressant. So in short, if you don't get enough sleep, the hormones in your body get all out of whack and you think that you're hungry when really you don't need that food. Caving in to such hunger will lead to excess weight gain.

Knowledge about this has led weight loss experts and scientists to work on harnessing the information to assist people in losing weight. This has been realized in the form of an anti-obesity vaccine which reduces the production of ghrelin and therefore reduces weight gain. Although you can use drugs such as these, what you really need to do to start balancing out your ghrelin and leptin hormones is to make sure that you're getting the proper amount of sleep that you need. Why take supplements and vaccines when you can just treat yourself well and naturally lose weight?

Getting the right amount of sleep can be the first step to making sure that you're getting the ghrelin / leptin balance that your body needs to naturally maintain a healthy weight. You should also be getting sleep at the right times, not going to bed excessively late and not sleeping only a little bit one day and then a lot the next to make up for it. As much as possible, you should try to get between 6-8 hours of sleep per night if you want to naturally balance out your ghrelin and leptin levels.

Some people have found that there are different diets that can also help people improve sleep, probably for reasons very similar to those discussed above. People who have naturally healthy diets are more likely to have better sleep habits and so they get the correct balance of ghrelin and leptin which leads to a healthy cycle of sleeping and eating. As a general rule, people who maintain healthy diets as well as healthy sleep patterns are going to have an easier time with weight loss because of the benefits of this kind of a cycle. So, you just need to sleep and eat right; who knew?!