Why Don’t You Lose Weight?

In this we’ve highlighted one of the major reasons of not losing that extra weight despite regular exercise and healthy diet. We tend to ignore this aspect of health. Sleep is one of the most important factors which decides how healthy we are and it compliments your weight loss. Ignoring the importance of good sleep on the other hand will negate all the other good work that you’ve been doing to lose that extra weight

What does the quality and quantity of sleep affects in the body?

The major aspects in our body which are affected by the quantity and quality of sleep are:-

• The brain
  • Your metabolism
  • Stress levels in your body
  • Your mood
  • Eatingg habits
  • The hormonal health in your body
  • Insulin level in the body

Importance of good sleep

• Quality and quantity of sleep is directly connected to the metabolism in your body
• Aftert just four days of poor sleep your metabolism drops a great level
• Too little sleep triggers the stress hormone spike in your body
• Lack of sleep triggers a cortisol spike in your body
• Increased appetite and poor food choice
  • This is caused by the impact of sleep on two hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin
  • Ghrelin is a hormone that signals hunger in the brain
  • When you don’t get adequate sleep, the body makes more ghrelin and less leptin, making you feel hungry and increasing your appetite
  • Poor sleep has also been linked to increased intake of food high in calories, unhealthy fat and carbs
• Poor mental health and physical performance
  • Lack of quality sleep reduces your decision making power
  • It causes major day time fatigue in the body
  • Day time fatigue makes you less motivated to exercise
• Insulin resistance
  • Poor sleep can cause the cells to become insulin resistant
  • This can eventually lead to diabetes

Importance of human growth hormone

• Poor quality and quantity of sleep leads to low human growth hormone in the body
  • The human growth hormone is the most useful hormone for weight loss fat to muscle ratio
• Lack of this hormone makes you look older
  • This is due to sleep intefering with collagen production and loss of muscles by the body
• Poor bone health
  • Lack of this hormone reduces bone density and production of new bones
• Lees human growth hormone in the body slows down the healing process post any illness or injury

How to increase the quality and quantity of sleep

• Make sure you wake up at the same time daily
  • This will help your body to set a biological clock for itself
• Create a solid evening routine and stick to it
• Make sure you get uninterupted and quality sleep
• The cycles of sleep : the various cycles of sleep are :-
  • Awake
  • Light sleep
  • Deep sleep
    • Your body relaxes along with your mind
  • REM sleep or Rapid Eye Movement
    • Your mind works very fast in this stage
    • The blood flow in your body is fast
    • Your bp rises slightly
    • Your body temperature is higher than the normal temperature
    • Most rapid processes of repair takes place at the REM sleep stage

What can you do to improve the quality of sleep?

• Avoid stimulants like tea, coffee and alcohol 2-3 hours before going to bed
• Have milk instead as it has sleep inducing effect on the body
• Avoid exposure to blue light
  • Eye retina sends signal to the brain and body to stay up and about during the exposure to blue light
• Expose yourself to more sunlight during the day
• Have a meal containing low carbs, high protein and healthy fat in the evening
• Drink more water during the day and less in the evening or at night
• Avoid exercising in late evening or at night
• Sleep in the room with temperature a little lower than normal
• Meditation and deep breathing prior to sleeping assist in sound sleep as well