Napping has become a fresh strategy for Guess what? Sleeping can help you lose weight! It’s really true. Sleeping might be the simplest way to get rid of extra weight. Keep reading to learn more.
Guess what? If you love sleep, you’ll be happy to know that sleeping can help you without any worries. It’s true! Usually, people think losing weight needs strong determination, like eating good food, exercising, and avoiding sugary stuff. People usually do these things to lose weight. But guess what studies found? Sleeping might actually be the easiest way to lose extra fat!
“So, how does this work?
Lots of us eat snacks between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But sometimes, this can make us eat more calories than if we just had the right amount of food at the main meals.
Scientists at the Salk Institute did a special test. They asked people who usually stayed awake for 14 hours to try staying awake for only 11 hours. After 16 weeks, these people lost more than 4% of their extra body weight, even though they didn’t do anything else to lose it.
This is the reason it happened:
- Say Goodbye to Nighttime Snacks
Imagine this: you’re staying up late, either working on something important or talking with your friends. But this can mess up your body’s internal clock, called the circadian rhythm. When this happens, your body makes too much of a hormone called ghrelin, which makes you feel more hungry. A study from the University of Pennsylvania showed this to be true. They found that people who slept from 4 in the morning until 8 in the morning ate 550 more calories compared to people who slept from 11 at night until 8 in the morning.
- You’re Burning Calories While You Sleep
Guess what? Our bodies use energy and burn calories even when we’re not exercising. When we sleep, we burn around 65 calories every hour. That’s more than 500 calories during 8 hours of sleep! If you used that time to watch TV, you’d burn about the same number of calories, but you’d also feel tired and less energetic. A study from the University of Chicago found that people lose more fat when they get enough rest.
- You Make Better Choices When Shopping and Eating
Guess what? A study in a magazine called Obesity found something interesting. When people went shopping for food, those who didn’t sleep enough bought about 1300 extra calories’ worth of stuff compared to those who slept more. And that’s not all! Another cool study showed that people who got enough sleep chose to eat smaller portions. These portions had at least 35 fewer calories than what people who didn’t sleep enough wanted to eat.
- Less Stress and Better Focus
Getting good and long sleep helps a special part of your brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This part helps you say no to things you shouldn’t do and keeps your brain focused. So, even when you’re around lots of tasty but high-calorie foods, you can use your strong willpower and avoid gaining weight. Also, scientists from the Harvard Medical School found that not getting enough sleep makes a stress hormone called cortisol go up. This hormone can make your body store more fat, which might lead to gaining weight.
Here’s How You Can Get More Sleep
Even if you’re really determined, you might eat too much if you don’t sleep for 7 to 9 hours. If you want to lose weight, here are some easy things you can do to sleep more and get in shape faster.
- Eat foods with something called Tryptophan. It helps you sleep better. Foods like nuts, fish, chicken, eggs, lentils, and avocados have this.
- When you sit down to have tea, your body gets the message to relax. Teas like lavender, mint, tulsi, and chamomile are great for making your body relax and even help melt away fat.
- Eating foods with something called insoluble fiber is good. It’s in things like brown rice and whole grains. These foods have stuff your body needs to sleep longer and better. Try to have them for lunch.
With just a bit more sleep, you can be on your way to losing weight.”
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