I had been thinking about this one for some time, and then I saw the following blog post: Does Sleep Deprivation Really Impact Weight Loss? The obvious answer being, ‘ Yes,’ and it covered nearly everything I was planning to write about, so I highly recommend clicking on the link to this post.
I’ve already talked about the poor food choices we tend to make when tired. As I am now tracking my daily calorie intake, sleep, and weight the next morning, I’ve also personally noticed 2 nearly identical days of food intake and the next morning one will have a positive effect on my weight, and the other negative – the only real difference was having a good night sleep.
Another interesting study looked at eating late at night. Your body starts releasing fat into the blood stream about 1 hour before your normal bed time, and does so continuously overnight. This is to keep the cells nourished while you sleep. So eating right before bed can not only give you funky dreams and heart burn, but go straight to fat.
Your body saves extra fuel in the blood stream as fat. If you are eating at a time when your body naturally releases fat, you create an overload which goes right back on as fat.
Everyone’s cycle is different, so I can’t give you a rule to stop eating by a certain time. I’m a morning person, so I found it is important to me to eat fairly early in the day and stop fairly early. I try to stop eating food (and drinking any alcohol) by 6-7pm in the evening (yes there are special occasions when I don’t follow this). My wife however, is a night owl, and she usually eats breakfast later in the morning, and stops eating later in the evening.
I found it surprising how many more calories I can consume and still lose weight, when eating good healthy foods, in the right combinations, at the right times of the day, and getting a good night sleep.
We all know far too well how the negative cycle works. Doing the right things help get you into a positive cycle of feeling good, making good decisions, sleeping well, and maintaining a healthy weight.
Good luck! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at daveb.uk@hotmail.com. [Crew Dog: Or comment below]