If you aren\u2019t getting a good night\u2019s sleep, can it really lead to weight gain? Many people wonder if this is true or if it\u2019s an old wives\u2019 tale. Research says a lack of sleep can, indeed, cause weight gain.<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re sleepy, you tend to make unhealthy decisions. You drink too much caffeine or go for convenient, high-fat foods because you don\u2019t have the energy to do anything else. Susan Zafarlotfi, PhD, clinical director of the Institute for Sleep and Wake Disorders at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey describes it this way:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have\u00a0sleep deprivation\u00a0and are running on low energy, you automatically go for a bag of potato chips or other\u00a0comfort foods.\u201d<\/p>\n
While these choices might help you through the day, the long-term effect can take a toll on your waistline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSleep debt is like credit card debt,\u201d Zafarlotfi says. \u201cIf you keep accumulating credit card debt, you will pay high interest rates or your account will be shut down until you pay it all off. If you accumulate too much sleep debt, your body will crash.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re sleep deprived it messes with two hormones that help you make food choices. Ghrelin tells you when you\u2019re hungry. Leptin tells you when you\u2019re full. When you\u2019re sleep deprived, you have a lot of Ghrelin and less Leptin. In other words, you want to eat all of the time and your body isn\u2019t telling you to stop. The result is weight gain.<\/p>\n
To maintain a healthy lifestyle, you\u2019re probably wondering just how many hours of sleep you need each night. Researchers say 7.5 hours each night is best. If you\u2019re getting less than this, it\u2019s time to find a solution. Talk with a doctor if the problem persists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you aren\u2019t getting a good night\u2019s sleep, can it really lead to weight gain? Many people wonder if this is true or if it\u2019s an old wives\u2019 tale. Research says a lack of sleep can, indeed, cause weight gain. Lack of sleep leads to bad choices When you\u2019re sleepy, you tend to make unhealthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[692],"tags":[693,796],"class_list":["post-15171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleep","tag-sleep","tag-weight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}