Sleep in to Stay Slim

Maybe you are a few pounds overweight, or more than a few. Or maybe you’re scared to death you will be overweight in the future if you don’t do something about it now.

And maybe you’re right — but your life is already brimming over with work, the house, your spouse, kids, parents, pets, friends, sports, clubs, errands and chores. How can you possibly find time for the workout you know you need?

Faced with this question, many moms of all ages (and plenty of others) have started to tap the very early hours of the morning before the rest of the world gets cranking to slip in those reps or routines that they hope will make the difference in their muscle mass and waistlines.

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The number of pre-dawn boot camps and aerobic classes has skyrocketed in the past few years. A quick online search for organized exercise opportunities in one typical west coast suburban area turned up over two dozen classes or groups with start times before 6 a.m.

If you are cutting your sleep short to fit in that workout before work or school, you may be sabotaging your own best efforts.

The earliest was a 4:30 a.m. boot camp-style program offered three days a week.

Of course, there are gyms in every neighborhood open 24 hours a day, so if 4:30 a.m. is not early enough for you, you can pick your own time.

All of this first-thing fitness is laudable to an extent, but if you are cutting your sleep short to fit in that workout before work or school, you may be sabotaging your own best efforts. In fact, your early morning workout may be making you fat.

Healthy Sleep, Healthy Metabolism
One five-year study reported in the Journal of Sleep Research revealed that women who slept less than six hours a night were more likely to gain 11 pounds, and even more than women who got seven to eight hours of sleep per night.

The men in this study did not gain as much weight as the women, but those men who had a solid eight hours of sleep each night remained very steady, gaining less than two pounds over eight years.

The reasons for the less-sleep-more-weight connection most likely has to do with hormonal balances. Sleep-deprived individuals produce less leptin, a chemical that helps to keep our appetite in check. They also make more ghrelin, another hormone that signals the brain to seek out quick energy foods — think donuts and frappy coffee drinks.

When someone is operating on little sleep, that person has more hours in the day to eat, and his or her food choices are less likely to be healthy ones. Studies have shown that although meal time calories stay relatively the same, sleepy people tend to snack more.

Related: 5 Steps to Better Sleep for Life

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health has shown that as little as four days of sleep restriction can reduce insulin sensitivity in previously healthy, young adults. If this condition persists, it can lead to a whole host of health problems, including diabetes and obesity.

Science has also shown serious alterations in thyroid function, growth hormone balance and cortisol release patterns in response to sleep deprivation. If any one of these delicate systems is thrown off kilter, the result may be weight gain, decreases in muscle mass, fatigue and other chronic metabolism problems.

So although your intentions are good, when you start to look for a place in your daily schedule to fit in much-needed exercise, don’t sacrifice your sleep to do it.

A full seven-to-eight hour sleep night every night will go just as far to keep you slim as slogging it out at the gym after only five hours of shut-eye.