The Sleep Diet

Have you heard of The Sleep Diet?  I have been reading up on the connection between sleep and exercise lately as I have had the dilemma of not enough sleep.  Working full time night shifts and getting to bed at 1am has been making me wonder if I have been getting enough rest to allow my body to recover.  I have been working very hard with my exercises routines and I must say I am loving it.  Being over tired and lack of sleep has been the "norm" in this household.  Just having kids will do this for you, but adding work and intense exercise in the mix, does it spell disaster?

Is it true about the sleep diet, this diet which suggests you can loose weight while you snore?

I would like to quote Michael Breus PhD, he is the author of 'Beauty Sleep' ;

 

“It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly,”

 

On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night, I am lucky to get 5 on a good night.  I can't sleep in anymore as I need to get the kids off to school, and catching a nap during the day is far and few between.  So obviously I am worried about this, as my main goal here is to loose weight.  The fact that I have been doing this and the numbers continue to drop is such a fantastic thing, however am I putting extra stress on my body?

 

When it comes down to weight loss its a science, so too is this theory of sleep.  We have hormones in our bodies called Ghrelin and Leptin, these hormones are the key to weight loss.  Ghrelin is the hormone that tells you when to eat, and Leptin tells you to stop eating.  Apparently when you are sleep deprived there is a decrease in Leptin, now I don't know what your thinking but I'm definitely for the Leptin.  I want more of this hormone called Leptin, if only it was bottled.  More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain, plus you are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived.

 

This does not sound good does it, how much sleep do you get? 

 

So I googled Leptin in a bottle and sure enough there it was, ready for a consumer such as myself.  Wow you can get anything in a bottle these days.  I truly believe that this is a scary concept, and lucky I take things lightly.  I would do so much more research before I decided to put this down my throat. 

 The one thing I have found with this 12WBT program is that it's not a quick fix, its not in a bottle.  You have to put all your effort into making it work!