In praise of sleep
Fitness enthusiasts say, “Your body can do anything. It’s your brain you have to convince.” But did you know your body and brain require an adequate amount of sleep to lose those extra kilos? Losing weight goes beyond making changes in your diet or exercise routine. Let’s see how sleep deprivation can sabotage your workout, clean eating habits, and several other steps you might be taking to lose weight.
Lack of sleep can make you prone to injury
Exercise causes muscle tears which is a normal part of a workout. The muscle needs to repair itself. When does that happen? Not in the gym, but when we are sleeping. Sleep triggers the process of regeneration, repair, and growth. Sleep is where muscle soreness heals. A lack of sleep can delay the recovery process, making you more susceptible to workout injuries. Look at the lives of athletes. They eat, sleep, and train. With the intensity of their workouts, sleep becomes a part of their training routine. It is necessary for their recovery and rest, and good reason. Building lean muscle is key to effective and sustainable fat loss.
Crazy cravings and insatiable appetite
You might have the best intentions to eat clean to lose weight, but it is impossible to win over hormones that have gone haywire. Sleep is when our hormones balance and a lack of it can lead to serious hormonal imbalances. Even our appetite hormones - leptin and ghrelin, balance when we sleep well. Ghrelin is an appetite-stimulating hormone, and leptin is a satiety hormone. When sleep-deprived, ghrelin levels increase, and leptin decreases. The result? Unexplained cravings. This is why when you are sleep-deprived, you are bound to have more affinity towards junk and sugary foods.
Elevated cortisol and hormonal imbalance
Sleep deprivation is negative stress for our body, and sufferers are likely to wake up with elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. When cortisol levels are high, it has a cascading effect on several other hormones in our body, including insulin, thyroxine, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, and many more. Hormones never work in isolation. They work in an orchestra. So, if levels of one rise, levels of several hormones rise and fall as well. If you are sleep-deprived, you are likely to have a hormonal imbalance which makes losing fat an uphill task.
High inflammation
Obesity is an inflammatory condition. The more sleep-deprived we are, the more inflammation exists in our bodies. Now, one can have curcumin supplements to suppress inflammation, but if sleep-deprived, do you think your body needs curcumin or just sleep?
Compromised body’s intelligence
Our bodies are intricately designed to regulate weight, so if you’re struggling with excess fat, it is worth examining what might be compromising your body’s innate intelligence. When working with individuals on fat loss, we consider more than just dietary factors; we delve into mechanisms such as angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the body’s ability to grow new blood vessels, a process crucial for growth from infancy to adulthood. Ideally, angiogenesis ceases once organs reach maturity, but in some cases, it can lead to abnormalities like the growth of extra fingers due to uncontrolled angiogenesis. In the context of fat loss, we focus on angiogenesis because it contributes to the supply of blood to fat cells.
However, sleep presents a significant challenge to this intricate process of innate intelligence. Sleep is a necessity. It is a basic human need. If it was useless, why would it be a part of our lives?
Fix your sleep. It is non-negotiable.
Coutinho is an integrative lifestyle expert