Sleep helps us lose weight?

Sleep helps us lose weight?

Science insists that sleep helps us lose weight, infact a good rest reduces hunger, body mass index & regulates the hormones that demolish fat cells!

It is really true that there is a very close connection between sleeping well & weight loss, infact respecting the normal sleep cycle (8 hours) we maintain a metabolic balance that helps us contrast those extra kg.  Numerous researches have by now proved that if we do not rest well & enough, we create an imbalance at hormonal level this causes an increase in appetite & especially a craving for foods with a high sugar & fat content, furthermore we burn less calories & our metabolism slows down.

But howcome this occurs?

Little or not suffcient sleep is bad because it reduces our level of LEPTIN, the satiety hormone & increases the GHRELIN level, the appetite hormone, with the result that we end up eating more during the day orienting ourselves more towards fat foods, with more calories & sugar, the so called Junk food, hence the less we sleep the fatter we get!

But how much should we sleep?

When it come to this questions, the experts more or less agree on between 7/8 hours a day, however never under 6 hours, otherwise we risk to gain 6 extra kg in 1 year.  Also what we eat before going to sleep is very important, infact there are foods that help us sleep well & others that don’t.  However we must never eat just before going to sleep also very late in the evening in order to give our organism enough time to digest, and having an early light dinner not later than 19:00hrs twice to three times a week, so that we will have at least an 8 hour break until breakfast, helps us in the GH (somatotropin) secretion, that stimulates the lipolysis that is fat breakdown, hence weightloss.

SLEEP HELPING FOODS

We must prefer foods that help in the production of TRYPTOPHAN, the so called antistress hormone, hence:

• lettuce
• cabbage
• apricots
• peaches
• bananas
• whole grain cereals, oats in particular
• lean protein
• “good” fats (like for example extra virgin olive oil)

FOODS TO AVOID BEFORE GOING TO SLEEP

• red meat
• fried & elaborated foods (there is not enough time to digest)
• tomatoes
• fresh cheese
• we must also reduce the quantity of spices
• reduce alcohol
• reduce salt

We can also get help from some real health rituals like for example a FAT BURNING tea just before going to sleep, this tea activates the metabolic processes that work while we are sleeping & help us lose weight.

GINGER & LEMON TEA, where the ginger rich in anti-oxidants, has anti-inflammatory, digestive & weight losing properties & lemon is a powerful fat burner.

For 250ml of tea, use 3 slices of fresh peeled ginger & the juice of half a lemon.  Bring the water to a boil & add the ginger slices letting the water boil for another minute, turn off the flame and let the tea cool for about 10-15 minutes, filter & pour into a cup adding the lemon juice.  Drink the tea right before going to sleep & obviously do not sweeten it.

Another curious fact is that when we dream we burn more calories, therefore sleeping right through the morning without any interruptions helps us burn more, because when we sleep through we dream more.

Take a look at our tried and tested method: Anti-Diet