Sleep deprivation on.. Weight Gain

Want an easy way to shift a few kilos, curb carb cravings and lose fat without losing muscle? Sleep 8 hours. And here's why:

First thing - insufficient sleep alters your hunger hormones to make you more hungry and less satisfied post eating.
Specifically, satiety hormone leptin is reduced by 18%; whereas hunger hormone grehlin is increased by 28%; - as reported in academic journal
 Annuals of Internal Medicine.

Consequently, you’re likely to be 24% hungrier, and have a marked increase in craving for sugary carbs - the research shows 45% more.
As the body digests sugar rapidly (quicker than protein and fat), it helps you fight off fatigue.

Another study found that similarly, we eat much more than usual when sleep deprived: 60% more than our recommended daily intake!
Given that this is likely to be sugar (see above), this can contribute to easy weight gain.

It’s also important to know that the brain region controlling willpower - the frontal lobe - is compromised under lack of sleep too.
So this, alongside altered hunger hormones, contributes to your insatiable appetite.

In addition, when sleep deprived, your body is more likely to breakdown muscle, which not only diminishes lean muscle mass but also, slows metabolism.
This is a result of the 37% increase of (hormone) cortisol and 10-15% decrease in testosterone levels; both of which occur after inadequate sleep.

To understand how this may impact you, this clinical study tells you everything you need to know:
they found participants lost 55% more body fat when sleeping 8.5 hours rather than 5.5.
Whilst this may seem too significant to be true, the researchers had the same participants undergo both sleeping lengths at different times,
and kept all other factors the same - such as calorie intake and exercise.
Because of this, they were confident that sleep was the key variable causing the 55% difference.

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