Losing weight is not easy. From eating right to being physically active, the journey of weight loss goals is not an easy one.
But you will be surprised to know that even a relaxing thing like sleeping can help you lose weight. Yes, you read that right.
If you weigh yourself at night and again in the morning, you will see that you lose weight in the morning. This is because you lose water weight through breathing and sweating.
Even when the body is at rest, the organs and bodily systems do not shut down. Working of organs consumes calories. Thus, a poor night’s sleep can not only make you cranky, but it can also make you gain weight.
There are some strategic changes you can make to optimize your sleep for fat burning. Get restful sleep and burn more calories with these expert tips.
How can sleeping less make you gain weight?
Sleeping less than eight hours can increase stress levels and the hormone cortisol. An increase in cortisol levels can negatively affect the microbes in your gut.
An imbalance in the levels of micro-organisms ultimately slows down the metabolism. Lack of sleep can also disrupt hunger hormones, making you more likely to eat junk food.
This leads to an increase in blood sugar, which can lead to weight gain and other complications.
Studies have highlighted the fact that just one night of poor sleep can slow down metabolism the next day, reducing energy loss by up to 20 per cent.
Tips to burn calories at night while sleeping: Studies have highlighted the fact that just one poor night’s sleep can slow down the metabolism the next day, resulting in a 20 per cent reduction in energy expenditure.
Tips to burn calories while sleeping at night:
1. Late Night Weight Gain
Lifting weights can increase your metabolism for up to 16 hours. The findings of the studies are published in a paper titled “Effect of morning versus evening exercise training on glycemic control and serum metabolites in overweight/obese men: a randomized trial”. Nightly glucose levels were observed to be lower in participants who trained in the evening.
2. Drink the Casein Protein Shake
The slow-release protein is slowly digested over eight hours and keeps your metabolism burning throughout the night.
Casein is a slow-digesting dairy protein that is consumed as a supplement. It releases amino acids slowly and people take it before bedtime to aid recovery and reduce muscle breakdown while sleeping.
3. Take a cold water bath
Taking a bath with ice water after the gym flushes out the lactic acid. Brown fat is metabolically active and helps in burning calories, but we have less brown fat.
Only 30 seconds of freeze is necessary to activate the brown fat tissue or brown patches of your body. When it is burned, it melts up to an extra 400 calories in bed. Brown fat accumulates in the back of your neck and shoulders.
4. Green Tea
The flavonoids present in green tea can boost your metabolism. By drinking three cups of green tea, you can burn 3.5 percent more calories while sleeping.
5. Try Intermittent Fasting
Due to intermittent fasting, the sugar stores present in the body get exhausted and fat starts burning. This is called metabolic switching. The practice of consciously keeping calorie-free time throughout your day or week, intermittent fasting is a popular diet plan that helps people shed kilos.
6. Sleep More
This is right; One of the most effective ways to shift those pounds while you sleep is to make the most of it. Sleep is often neglected with today’s hectic schedule, but this needs to change if you want to lose weight. Don’t believe us? A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that overweight people got an average of 16 minutes less sleep per day than their regular-weight counterparts. It doesn’t take very long, but it makes up for the difference over time.
So why does sleep help keep you slim? It all has to do with the hormones leptin and ghrelin. Leptin helps regulate your energy levels and keep your appetite in check, while ghrelin stimulates appetite and triggers the need to eat frequently. Results from a study conducted at the University of Wisconsin found that participants who got more sleep had lower ghrelin and increased leptin levels, which helped control their appetite throughout the day.
7. Eat Small Meals Throughout The Day
‘Eat less often’ is a favourite suggestion from trainers and dietitians around the world, and you’ll be glad to hear that it’s a great way to boost your nighttime weight loss. Eating small meals frequently throughout the day keeps your metabolism going, and ensures that your body burns fat throughout the night. Of course, these meals have to be healthy and nutritious for this technique to work!
Along with boosting your metabolism while you sleep, this consistent eating method will ensure that your appetite is kept in check, reducing any cravings you might have when you wake up in the morning.
8. Forward Fold for 5 minutes
Certain yoga postures help to calm and calm the mind of anxiety and stress. Try sitting upright on the bed, legs extended in front, then hinge forward at the hips. Feel the stretch in the back of the legs (hamstrings), and take five slow deep breaths in and out for five. Feel the melt toward the feet and flex the feet. Do it before bed to calm the nervous system and promote better quality sleep.
9. Don’t drink before bed
While drinking water throughout the day leads to weight loss, drinking water before sleeping can lead to weight gain indirectly. This is because one of the major drawbacks of drinking water before going to sleep is disturbed sleep.
Despite all the benefits of drinking water before bedtime, each one can be cancelled out by a shortcoming. When you drink water just before bedtime, you are more likely to wake up in the night to use the bathroom. While one or two awakenings may not seem like a big deal at the time, chronically disrupted sleep can wreak havoc on our health.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, people who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to experience chronic heart disease, diabetes, obesity and depression. Sleep is important every night to restore our health and repair our muscles and organs.
10. Throw out the night light
According to a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, exposure to light at night not only disrupts your chances of getting a good night’s sleep but can also lead to weight gain. Study subjects who slept in dark rooms were 21 per cent less likely to be obese than those who slept in the lightest rooms.
This leads us to our next sleep-slimming trick….
Research shows that light before bedtime can suppress melatonin and that sleeping with a nap affects the circadian regulation of metabolism, increasing the risk of weight gain, according to the Sleep Foundation. So, turn off your TV, phone, and any bedside lights, and consider investing in blackout curtains to block out light from outside.
ADDITIONAL TIPS:
Banish electronics from the bedroom: A study by researchers at Northwestern University reports that nighttime exposure to blue light increases appetite and insulin resistance, which can certainly lead to weight gain, not just the body’s fat-burning power.
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