Lots of weight loss products promise miracles. One in particular that I recall says a magic pill lets you lose weight while you sleep. Now, groundbreaking new studies are revealing that you don’t even need a mystical (and questionable) potion to lose weight while sleeping; what women in particular need is sleep itself for effortless weight loss. (Do you know of an easier way to lose weight than indulging in lots of restful sleep?) There’s one caveat though: women need to sleep enough hours to reap the rewards; skimp on sleep and the converse occurs—you’re more likely to put on pounds.
Counting Zzzzzz’s
Are women really more prone to put on pounds when they don’t get enough sleep? Absolutely, says Sanjay Patel, M.D., the lead investigator of the study that revealed the link. To come to this unexpected conclusion, Dr. Patel and his team conducted the largest study of its kind. Starting in 1986, they began to track the sleep habits of almost 70,000 middle-aged women; at the same time, they linked the number of hours each slept each night to weight gain. The sleep-less, weigh-more link was there at the start of the study: women who slept 5 hours or less nightly already weighed about 5.4 pounds more than those who managed seven hours or more each night. Over the next 10 years, the more sleep-deprived women gained an average of 1.6 pounds yearly. While this may not seem like much, over a period of 10 years, this could mean 16 added pounds, or 32 pounds over a 20-year period.
Over the course of the 16-year study, the researchers found that about 33% of women who sleep five hours or less per night are at greatest risk for weight gain. Specifically, these women gained 33 pounds or more over time, while 15% of them gained even more weight and became obese. In comparison, 12% of the women who sleep just one hour more each night—for an average of six hours—are likely to gain weight, with 6% becoming obese; those who typically manage 7 hours or more nightly gained the least weight.
Women’s’ Sleep Less World
If you’re a woman and you find it difficult to get to sleep or stay asleep, you have a lot of company. When the National Sleep Foundation conducted a national poll, they found that 67% of women experience some kind of sleep problem. There can be lots of reasons for this, but a key culprit seems to be the hormonal mix that occurs between first pregnancy through menopause (which is generally between our twenties into our fifties). During this time, hormone shifts can lead to changes in mood that range from calmness to high-pitched anxiety. The hormone link? Naturally occurring low levels of progesterone can especially lead to a sense of “being on edge.” Add a “you-can-have-it-all” sensibility that permeates our culture, and you have a recipe for sleeplessness.
Fight Fat with Sleep
Luckily, there are ways to work with too little sleep, and in the process, lower the odds of weight gain. First, put “worry mode” on pause. If ruminating on problems is causing sleep deprivation, write your worries on a piece of paper and decide on a specific time—the next day—when you’ll give them some attention. Other suggestions: sip some soothing chamomile tea, or read a relaxing book before going to sleep. Discover what works best for you, then commit to sleeping 7 hours nightly, the number of hours experts suggest for women to ward off weight gain.
Deborah Kesten, MPH, was the nutritionist on Dean Ornish, MD’s first clinical trial for reversing heart disease through lifestyle changes—without drugs or surgery, and Director of Nutrition on similar research in cardiovascular clinics in Europe. With a specialty in preventing and reversing overweight and heart disease, she is the award-winning author of The Enlightened Diet: 7 Weight Loss Solutions That Nourish Body, Nourishing the Soul Body, Mind, and Soul; and The Healing Secrets of Food. Call her at 415.810.7874 to learn more about her health and healing coaching, or visit her at www.Enlightened-Diet.com to take her FREE What’s Your Eating Style? Quiz, and to learn more about her Whole Person Nutrition Program for wellness, weight loss, heart-health, coaching, and books.
jiten51
My dear Deborah,
Yea, good, wholesome food is worthy of worship. My weight is about the same when I was in the late teens and now that am semi-retired, give and take a kilo.
All our goddesses and gods worshipped food, and at the start of the meal put some aside for the creatures around us. Reminds me of a tale from the old texts.
A farmer took up doing puja, worship of the deities before going to look after his crops. His fields produced more than anyone for miles around, he prospered. He took more and more time to thank the gods for his produce, and the riches that ensued.
A god was whirling around in his satelite, saw what was going on below and was, first suitably impressed and then appalled, for there were herds of cattle mixed with other creatures like dogs and cats, all waiting for the puja to end so they could wolf and munch their feed. On the other side of the wall the farmer's kids were listlessly waiting for their feed from their mother.
The goddess, (er, role change is not unknown), took it upon herself to address the farmer with the divine loudhailer:
Farmer-ji, your command of the prayers and mantras for worship is impressive but the cattle, cats, dogs and toddlers do not understand a word of what you intone and sing, they want to worship their stomachs not gods. Feed them first!
It was done from then on, the riches spread in the rest of the kingdom, obesity vanished.
I'm one of those women who needs to manage weight. But that is to gain weight. So how's that?
Michelle Mamerga
http://www.antoniothornton.com/law-of-attraction
I'm amongst those men who cannot just sleep, work is so much on my mind that 6 hours of sleep and thereafter my eyes are wide open. Sometimes I won't even yawn just get up brush my teeth and go through my files.
I know some workaholics would say 6 hours is manageable but really I deep inside wish to have 8 hours of sleep so that I can relax a little more also less sleep means dark circles underneath my eyes so its always pretty evident that I have had less sleep.
Recently I got myself a memory foam bed hoping it would help me sleep comfortably and may be longer but that's not happened in 3 months donno if it will help at all.
Folk if you can sleep well that's a pleasure to enjoy in life too, ask people like me who are deprived of good sleep.
Do you have trouble falling asleep, or toss and turn in the middle of the night? Awaken too early, or find yourself not feeling refreshed in the morning? You are not alone: millions of people struggle with falling and staying asleep.
Unless you