Sleep More Important Than Diet For Weight Control

Medical News ^ | 24 May 2006

[nickcarraway]

If you manage to get a good night's sleep on a regular basis your chances of staying slim or becoming slimmer are significantly higher, say researchers from Care Western University, Ohio, USA, after monitoring nearly 70,000 women for over a decade and-a-half. This is the largest study ever to examine the effects of sleep on weight over the long-term.

What constitutes a good night's sleep? For this study, the researchers observed the effect sleeping five or fewer hours regularly has on a woman's weight over the medium and long term. They compared them to women who managed to regularly get 7 hours' sleep each night.

The findings were presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference, San Diego, California.

Women who don't get much sleep, up to five hours each night, are much more likely to have put on 33lbs (15 kilos) over a 16 year period - 30% more likely when compared to the women who managed to get 7 hours sleep each night. Light sleepers also have a significantly higher risk of becoming obese.

What surprised the researchers was that sleeping patterns had a much greater influence on women's long term weight than eating habits or physical activity.

At the start of the study, the women who slept up to five hours a night weighed 5.4 pounds more than those who got 7 hours or more. They also put on 1.6 pounds more each year than the good sleepers.

The researchers stressed that the 1.6 pounds extra per year may not sound like much, but this was an average. Multiply this number by ten and you are beginning to have a sizeable weight gap. Imagine what the difference would be over 20 or 30 years.

Dr. S Patel, lead researcher, said that hormones which regulate appetite are affected after just a few nights of sleep restriction. What surprised the researchers was that those who sleep less actually eat less than those who get adequate sleep. This shows that sleep is a much greater contributor to your long term weight than diet.

Dr Patel said he believes that people who sleep well fidget more during their waking hours - this helps them consume more calories. It is also most likely that hormones are tweaked in such a way as a result of how much we sleep - and this has a bearing on how many calories we burn off each day.

In order to stay/get slim, people have to focus on three factors:

-- Adequate sleep -- Nutrition -- Physical activity

Ask any professional sportsperson what the secret of top fitness is, and they will all say it is a combination of good training, eating the right foods and sleeping well - get one of those three factors wrong and you seriously undermine your chances of winning a race.

[little jeremiah]

Note this! I just need more sleep!

[Aggie Mama]

I've been sleep deprived for the past 9 yrs (since my youngest was born). I'm only now starting to sleep 8 hrs (if I'm lucky and no kiddos wake me up). It's kind of hard to want to do anything when you've been up with a crying baby all night long.

[HungarianGypsy]

Then why is my husband who gets much less sleep, almost the same size as he was in high school?

[Puppage]

Sleep More Important Than Diet For Weight Control

Then, why is my cat fat? He gets a solid 18 hours of shut eye a night.

[GSWarrior]

after monitoring nearly 70,000 women for over a decade and-a-half.

I hear these are round figures!

[HIDEK6]

Then why is my husband who gets much less sleep, almost the same size as he was in high school?

Because God is a man.

[Alouette]

Ambien is a diet pill! Who knew?

[HungarianGypsy]

I believe you. Especially since a majority of my weight gain can be attributed to childbearing. Although, I think size 3 is way too skeeny. LOL!

[nickcarraway]

My friend told me ambien makes people eat weird things. One guy ate buttered cigarettes and didn't remember the next day.

[Moonman62]

Then, why is my cat fat? He gets a solid 18 hours of shut eye a night.

For a cat, 18 hours is sleep deprivation.

[marmar]

bookmark

[steve86]

Then, why is my cat fat? He gets a solid 18 hours of shut eye a night.

It is a curvilinear function. It really is.

[Albion Wilde]

Observing the CZ-J rule. Has she been losing sleep lately?

image: octanecreative.com

[Cobra64]

Moral of the story, "Sleep more, eat less."

[xenophiles]

This appears to be an uncontrolled study. The researchers observe a correlation between A and B and conclude that B causes A. They don't seem to consider the possibility that being overweight causes people to lose sleep, or that the same social/genetic/whatever factors that cause weight gain also prevent people from sleeping as well.

Not only do they not bother to do a controlled study, they don't even investigate the obvious question: when and how do the thin people who eat and sleep a lot burn all of the calories? Vague speculation about "fidgeting" is worthless-- measure their resting metabolic rates! Look at exercise patterns! Is it possible that regular exercise helps people to sleep better at night?

This doesn't look like valuable research to me.

[Cobra64]

How can I eat if I'm asleep?

[Tax-chick]

say researchers from Care Western University, Ohio, USA,

Wouldn't this be "Case Western Reserve University"?

[Albion Wilde]

Fat B*****d: "Get in mah belly!"

[Cobra64]

My informal study indicates that fat people drink Diet Coke. Has anyone ever seen a fat person dring Coke Classic?