Showing posts with label sleep deprivation and weight gain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep deprivation and weight gain. Show all posts

High Cortisol Levels and Weight Gain - Stress

Stress raises the cortisol levels in the body. And high cortisol levels often lead to weight gain. We'll take a look at the connection between high cortisol levels and weight gain, can stress cause weight gain and how to overcome stress in order to lose weight in this article. Let's begin.

Roles of cortisol in the body
Cortisol is often linked closely to stress, but in reality it holds several essential functions in the body. The adrenal glands release cortisol to assist in the regulation of blood pressure, the immune system and many other roles. Simply speaking, cortisol is beneficial in low quantities but high cortisol levels may result in an increase of abdominal fat or weight gain, which contribute to heart attacks, strokes and can raise the amount of bad cholesterol and reduce the production of good cholesterol in the body as well.

Moreover, excessive amount of cortisol may reduce bone density, contributing to osteoporosis and deprivation of muscle masses, and in turn decelerate one metabolic rate. It also may accelerate the blood pressure together with other problems.

Can stress cause weight gain?
Every individual responses differently to stress; some will release more cortisol to a specific situation of stress while others do not affected. In addition, high levels of cortisol often cause the affected individual to eat more food, especially carbohydrates. And this eventually will cause weight gain.

In order to prevent your body from releasing excess amount of cortisol, you must find a suitable some way to help you relax and also try to change your lifestyle or learn to live a healthy lifestyle.

Exercising, mediation, yoga, or breathing will help to relax your body and mind.

For more tips on how to to lose weight fast and easy, check also these articles:
Now, here's is a practical way to help you reduce stress thus avoid weight gain triggered by stress and high cortisol levels:
Breathing is probably one of the easiest and simplest ways to get into relaxation state. Breathing exercise can be performed by softly breathing in through the nose, softly expanding your abdomen and then softly discharging the air through your nose while drawing in your abdomen. Whilst expelling the air you must focus on that breath. After a few breaths in and out you should begin to feel yourself relax. As a start, you can practice this breathing a couple of minutes a day and building up to five minutes in the end. It'll help too when you are feeling stressed or when everything seemed to be out of you control. It only take a few minutes to calm down your emotion and help you to feel relax.

For a healthier lifestyle, you may need to change your habits, such as eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, or even organizing your time more efficiently so that you don't get stressed easily. All these changes will certainly assist your body in dealing with stresses that you face during your day.

Finally, stress do cause weight gain. Thus, if you are working out regularly and dieting properly but still not losing any weight particularly from around the abdominal then maybe your source of weight gain is from high levels of cortisol caused by stress. Look at ways to solve the problem and hopefully then you should see a difference in your weight and around your abdominal.

How Many Calories Burn while Sleeping?

A full night of undisturbed sleep not only leaves you feeling energized for a new day, but it helps your body metabolize your food much more efficiently. When your body is in the resting state during sleep, it actually works much harder to process energy and burn calories than if you were to sit on the sofa watching the television.

This is because your bodies repair and renew our depleted muscles, joints and other body parts in your sleep. This renewing process needs fuel to regenerate lean muscle mass and the body tissues. In a smooth and successful repairing process, certain amount of fat stores will be burn to run this process. In other words, this repairing process will burn calories.

So, how many calories do you burn in your sleep? Well, an average person can burn off over 50 calories while sleeping. And, you can accelerate this calories burning process significantly by taking some simple steps and training your body to burn fat while you sleep.

There are some factors that affect how efficient the body repair process use fat stores as energy.

Collagen

Collagen is the most common protein existed in our bodies. It is the main portion of our skin, nail, bone, tendon, cartilage, and connective tissue and is found in all of the body organs. Sufficient levels of collagen in the body helps to support the deep restorative sleep activities necessary to enable our body's natural metabolic functions to occur. This in turn can let the body to be more energize, build more lean muscle, and burn more fat.

Amino acids

The rebuilding process is also influenced by the efficiency of the amino acids normally used for this purpose. As part of the rebuilding process, amino acids help repair our body, preserve and build lean muscle while burning stored fat to supply the needed energy. This contributes to weight loss.

In conclusion, sleep is not only necessary for optimum body functioning, but it even burns calories as well. How many calories you can burn while you sleep is relative. In average, you can burn up to 50 calories in your sleep. You can even burn more by training your body to burn more fat while sleeping. So, make sure your sleep is consistent and relaxing. Lacking of sleep really can be counter productive when you want to lose weight.

Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain

Sleep is a time for the brain, the body, and all the hormones to get regulated and restore themselves to the baseline values for the next day. A large proportion of the people who suffer sleep deprivation are experiencing more weight gain. This is because caffeine or inadequate sleep will disrupt those restorative processes thus you’re ending not as fit or metabolically as you should be.

Does loss of sleep affect a person weight?
Yes. Loss of sleep has an enormous negative effect on the body's hormonal system among other things.

Researches show that continual sleep deprivation will raise the levels of glucose and insulin in the blood. Having surplus insulin boosts body-fat storage and it is an incredible side effect for people trying to lose weight.

Loss of sleep also causes lack of energy and sets up a vicious low-energy cycle that ruins your weight loss program. Often when energy reserves are low, people turn to high-fat and high-sugar laden foods or caffeinated drinks for instant energy …all of which obstruct weight loss efforts. Some may drink 10 to 15 caffeinated beverages a day, which has an adverse effect on sleep quality. It’s a double whammy.

What is the connection between sleep deprivation and weight gain?

Sleep deprivation lowers the levels of leptin - a blood protein that suppresses appetite and affects how the brain registers when the body is full - and raises levels of grehlin – a substance which stimulates appetite – that is thought to play a role in long-term regulation of body weight. Excess ghrelin makes one hunger for more food, and less leptin keep one from feeling full. This is the reason why obese people suffering with sleep apnea often put on weight faster than others. It also explains why they are less likely to exercise and would prefer to sit on the couch and munch on cookies, especially when they get tired.

What is the scientific evidence of sleep deprivation leading to body weight gain?

Researchers found that the more hours of one’s sleep deprivation, the higher his or her possibility of weight gain. Participants in a US study who got less than 4 hours of sleep each night were 73% more likely to be overweight than those who sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night, the recommended amount. Those who slept only 5 hours each night were 50% more likely to be overweight, and those who slept 6 hours a night were 23% more likely to gain more weight.

What is the result of weight gain on loss of sleep?

Fat accumulation in the throat and neck may cause obstruction of airways during sleep leading to poor oxygenation of the lungs. This causes pathological snoring called sleep apnea. You wake up many times during the night. You have day time sleepiness, and again another night of disturbed sleep. This condition is called obstructive sleep apnea.

If so, the obstructive sleep apnea leads to more sleep deprivations, more stress, and more leptin and grehlin fluctuations, and finally more weight gain in a vicious cycle.

In conclusion, sleep deprivation and weight gain is closely related thus you should get lots of good night’s sleep to avoid any unwanted weight gain.