Apnea and Dieting: How Hormones Work Against You
For people with sleep disorders, a healthy diet and regular exercise is not enough to combat weight gain. If you suffer from sleep apnea then beware if you’re only losing sleep and not the unwanted fat.
Yes, sleep is necessary for not only mental focus and physical stamina but is essential to regulate your weight!
If you find it practically impossible to stop gaining weight then you might have a hidden sleep problem, such as apnea that is harming your body’s hormone levels and causing your weight gain.
Sleep apnea is a growing health concern. Doctors believe that up to 80 million Americans have sleep apnea and don’t even know it.
Trying to lose weight without treating your apnea is a losing battle. Your body needs deep sleep night after night to regulate healthy functions, maintain your metabolism and to lose weight.
If you have apnea and are not regularly using CPAP, then you are almost certainly going to gain weight.
What’s the relationship between sleep apnea and weight gain:
1. Most of you don’t have time to feel run down from lack of sleep. Your body’s solution is to crave immediate energy by carbo-loading in the form of sugar, carbohydrates and other calorie rich foods. In a study by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, patients with the most extreme cases of sleep problems were also consuming the most calories, protein, cholesterol and saturated fat.
2. In a report from the Quebec Family Study, people who regularly only get five to six hours of sleep per night are 35% more likely to gain up to 11-pounds of fat over six years compared to a person who sleeps between seven to eight hours per night.
3. Without good sleep, the levels of the hormone ghrelin go way up. Ghrelin is produced in the gastrointestinal tract and stimulates appetite. So getting good sleep is probably the most natural appetite suppressant in the world!
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