HCG AND THE "SARASOTA DIET" Day 19, So Are You Overweight Because You're Not Sleeping Enough? ROBERT G CARLSON, MD,FACS

HCG AND THE "SARASOTA DIET" Day 19, So Are You Overweight Because You're Not Sleeping Enough? ROBERT G CARLSON, MD,FACS

Day 19: 215.6

Continuing to exercise and went to bed early last night...and lost more weight. Gotta Love it! I begin the morning with my coffee and had two hard-boiled eggs. Also took a three hard boiled eggs with me to work and ate those through the course of the day. they really suppressed my appetite. I only ate two Turkey and smoked Gouda roll-ups today and had a steak and salad with lots of Blue Cheese dressing for my dinner. I mixed a vanilla Atkins drink with ice and a handful of blueberries for dessert. I will continue with comments on weight loss and a good nights sleep.

Are You Overweight Because You're Not Sleeping Enough?

Everyone knows the importance of exercise and how it helps us with weight loss, but on some days don't you just wish you could have stayed in bed sleeping and lose weight at the same time?

Well, maybe you can. Because sleep is actually a critical part of your weight loss program!

This is a little-known fact, but did you know that sleep can affect your weight? Rather, it's the lack of sleep that can make you put on unnecessary weight. One may actually lose more weight if only they were to sleep more every day. Rather intriguing thought, but the facts are in and sleep is critical to weight loss....

In a review of several studies at the University of Chicago the impact of sleep on the regulation of metabolism and the secretion of growth hormone during the early phase of sleep was performed. In addition research has also identified the deleterious effects of sleep loss on the endocrine system and glucose modulation. One study examined the effect of sleep debt and sleep recovery on hormone concentrations. Sleep deprivation raised the 24-hour cortisol levels, and dramatically impaired glucose metabolism. A more recent study looked at the effect of 10 vs. 4 hours of sleep on appetite. Individuals who slept 4 hours were always hungry and craved starchy, sweet, and salty foods. These results suggest that sleep deprivation produces a signal supporting a negative energy balance and causing people to eat and thereby predisposing to obesity. Sleep deprivation also affected glucose metabolism and leptin levels and caused increase the appetite for unhealthy foods. Unfortunately this sleep deprivation had a greater impact on obese individuals and older adults. Research has also shown that sleep restriction might have worse effects in women than in men as well. So individuals that may be more severely affected by sleep deprivation are: (1) obese individuals, (2) older adults, and (3) women.

That's really crucial if you're a woman over 40,who is experiencing sleep deprivation from plummeting progesterone levels and not getting enough sleep. This will undoubtedly make you feel hungry constantly and crave for all the unhealthy foods even more as compared to other people. And the more overweight you are, the more you may be affected by the lack of sleep. So a recent study that identified women who do not sleep enough tend to be more overweight than women who get sufficient sleep really shouldn’t be of much surprise to you? So go to bed early tonight and lose more weight!