Since 2004 I’ve been harping on the value of sleep. Two important books and a few years under my belt brought me to this point.
(I’ve talked about sleep here in the past but I can’t help it. It’s needs the focus.)
Sleep is an interesting challenge as a health and fitness practitioner. Some people require less and others more. Additionally, it’s difficult in a large setting to qualify and quantify how it all gets factored into the result. The tendency in my industry to focus on food (diet is such a bad word) and fitness and to give cursory attention to sleep and other lifestyle issues. It’s our default setting. So as a rule sleep is the red headed step child to programming and eating.
While improved sleep will help with anything from mental issues to a reduction in inflammation and cardiovascular events, they don’t appear sexy enough to get folks attention.
BUT, if you mention fat loss you will tend to catch an ear.
Sleep deprivation will absolutely train wreck your fat loss goals. Burning the candle at both ends stretches your reserves and puts your sympathetic nervous system into overdrive. To over simplify things, your body is thinking fight. A craving for carbohydrates and sugars occur and fat burning is turned down. The net result is the body holding on to fat as a survival response. (A poor training program nets the same result but that’s another topic.)
For males, running low on sleeps typically nets a reduction in testosterone levels which creates a whole new subset of issues. Get that macho man? Less sleep = less manly.
I’ve found that better sleep is the result of better sleep habits ,before bed time ritual and a great bed. You may also benefit from running your own sleep study.
Part 2 of this post will include my first fat loss story solely as a result of more sleep. Stay tuned kids.
BFKC Blog
An excellent 90 minute radio interview with T.S. Wiley author of lights out ! ~http://bit.ly/hMiUIw