Can not getting enough sleep make you fat?
An article written by Tanya Zuckerbrot on August 15, 2011 for Fox News says that being tired can lead to being overweight.
Even if you did not know that the National Sleep Foundation estimates that 63% of American adults do not get enough sleep we are pretty sure that particular statistic did not surprise you. The fact is most of us sleep only about five or six hours a night when we are lucky making much of the United States a nation of afternoon zombies but did you know that that lack of sleep also contributes heavily to ..well how heavy you are?
Studies have shown that a lack of sleep leads to elevated levels of serum ghrelin which is our main appetite stimulating hormone as well as reduced levels of the hormone that tells us when we are full, leptin a combination which makes us overeat when we are not really hungry so we gain weight. Add in the fact that when we are tired we are less likely to be active and you have the perfect recipe for packing on the pounds. (Not to mention an excuse for your sabotaged diet.) Lack of sleep offers health issues that are much more alarming then just gaining a few pounds.
A study done at the University of Chicago found that for every single hour of missed sleep your risk of high blood pressure rose 37%. So those of us who regularly 5 hours or less a night are much more likely to have high blood pressure and the health problems which go with it.
So the bottom line seems to be that yes, lack of sleep can make you fat as well as cause a multitude of other risky health issues. So make the time to catch 40 winks a night or at least 7 to 9 hours so that you can be at your healthy best everyday and lose a little weight while you are at it.
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