With the New Year just around the corner, many people will be starting it with resolutions, and the more common ones will include exercising more, losing weight, and eating healthier. If you have similar goals, we would recommend that you include one more goal to the list as it will greatly benefit you on your weight loss journey. We are referring to the goal of getting enough sleep.
Why Does Sleep Matter?
The science behind sleep has been getting loads of attention in recent years. Of course, there are loads of benefits of consistent sleep. However, sleep also has a big impact on your physical fitness, especially weight loss. Now, you might think that your heart rate is higher when you are awake as you are burning more calories.
However, what you might not know is that when you are asleep, sleep creates some internal body chemistry, which can increase your rate of burning fat.
When You Don’t Sleep
When you don’t sleep, plenty of your hormones are tweaked, including insulin, which is the chemical that lets glucose into your cells. If you have a shorter sleep cycle, you are prone to have impaired insulin sensitivity, which means that your muscles will use up to twenty percent less glucose compared to if you had gotten enough sleep.
If you don’t sleep, you have a bunch of glucose hanging out in your blood.
What Happened with Extra Glucose
If you have more glucose in your body, your body converts that glucose into extra fat and stores that extra glucose in the form of fat cells in your body. The need is to remove all that extra glucose from your blood before it gets stored as fat. To deal with the extra glucose, we recommend checking out a semaglutide weight loss clinic near me, as semaglutide is an effective drug for weight loss and is also used as a source of glycemic control.
Potential Benefits of Semaglutide
There is a good chance that you are reading about semaglutide for the first time, which is why we want to tell you a little more about this. Semaglutide will not only reduce blood sugar but also reduce the risks of cardiovascular health issues, such as heart attacks. Simultaneously, it is effective in reducing excessive body weight, too. So, after talking to your healthcare provider, you might want to add semaglutide to a healthy meal plan and boost your chances of reaching your weight loss goals.
Beware the Stress Hormone
Apart from a higher glucose level in your blood, you should also be mindful of the stress hormone, known as cortisol, which is bumped up the day after you have pulled an all-nighter and not gotten enough sleep. The extra stress hormones work together with insulin and signal to your body that the extra glucose in your blood is essentially fat.
Since you haven’t slept eight hours, your insulin is out of balance. As a result, you have extra glucose and higher cortisol levels.
You Eat More When You Are Stressed
Now, you might have noticed that the pattern of extra eating is linked to higher stress levels. When you are in stress, your cortisol levels are higher, which is why you might want to resort to binge eating. The more food you consume, the more fats your body will store. As a result, you will gain weight. It is essential to mention here that stress eating will also ruin your weight loss goals. When you are stressed, you naturally want to consume comfort foods, which are high in carbs, fats, and sweets.
The solution to the problem is to learn to effectively manage your stress so that you don’t have to resort to stress eating.
When you are stressed, the chemistry inside your brain changes, which makes unhealthy food more appealing to you. Less sleep means that you will feel hungrier, and you will eat whatever is available and convenient.
Decrease in Serotonin
Sleep deprivation also causes a decrease in serotonin. You might already know that serotonins are neurotransmitters that signal happiness and other good feelings. Now, when it comes to serotonin, you already know that sweet or salty food will increase your feel-good hormones and make you happy.
So, here is the thing: if you don’t get your sleep in order, your stress levels and your insulin levels will spike. A spike in insulin will result in stored fats, which is why insulin makes you obese. On the other hand, a spike in cortisol level will lead you to crave comfort foods because you will be trying to get your serotonin to soar.
The solution to all these problems is sleep. So, you need to get some sleep in order to increase your chances of reaching your fitness goals in the New Year.
While you are making a list of all the great things that you want to achieve in the next year, make sure to add the goal of “getting enough sleep” to your list, too.
Effective Tips for Better Sleep Hygiene
Now, you might be saying that you really struggle with getting enough sleep; however, we are here to tell you that sleep should come to you naturally. If you have insomnia, then, of course, you have a serious health issue, and you should see your healthcare provider to help you with getting your sleep in order. However, if you don’t have insomnia, then it comes down to making serious lifestyle changes that can ensure that you get at least seven to eight hours of sleep every day.
Turn Off Your Tech Gadgets
Tech gadgets are the main reason why people struggle to fall asleep at night. The blue light emitted from tech devices makes your mind believe that it is still daytime, which is why your brain cannot produce melatonin. On that note, we recommend you turn off your phone or put it on silent and place it far away from your bed at least one hour before bedtime. This way, you will allow your mind plenty of time to unwind, relax, and produce melatonin, which in turn will promote better sleep.
Final Thoughts
Now you know the importance of sleep for weight loss, but you also know how not getting enough sleep changes your mind and body. Apart from getting enough sleep, you should also focus on moving your body, consuming healthy diets, and keeping stress at bay for a successful weight loss journey.