A Study Just Showed That If You Didn’t Sleep Enough, You’ll Eat More & Gain Weight

By
Celeste Lee
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Last Updated on 2020-12-09 , 7:44 pm

I used to be mocked by my schoolmates: they call me a ghost because of my red eye bags and fair skin.

So I went to chop off my hair, to avoid looking like a ghost. I’m much better now, thanks for your concern.

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But yes, I do get a lot of people asking me if I’ve had enough sleep. My parents, sisters, and that beautician at the beauty salon.

Sigh, the thing is, I sleep a lot. I go to bed at 9:00 p.m. and wake up at 8:00 a.m. That’s 11 hours of rest. Okay, minus the tossing and turning until 12:00 a.m. But hey, 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., that’s a solid 8 hours of rest man!

That’s sufficient for the normal human being, and some pandas.

Back to business. There was a research done by King’s College London to determine if not having enough sleep affects calorie intake.

They pooled data from 172 individuals in 11 separate studies to determine if sleep deprivation affected calorie intake.

So the results are out.

Participants who slept less than the optimal seven hours a night ate an extra 385 calories the next day. Mind you, this can increase the average person’s body weight by about 0.5 kg every week!

But of course, this doesn’t happen overnight. Like how eating clean for ONE day doesn’t make you healthy. And not if you have this mentality:

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There’s also another side to the coin.

Sleep-deprived may not eat more, but they tend to reach for food higher in fat content and lower in protein. This is bad because fat has more calories per gram than protein though protein keeps us fuller for a longer period of time.

What do you think? Do you find yourself buying Old Chang Kee or eating KFC the next day after burning midnight oil?

For me, whenever I feel tired, I crave for fried food. So I guess there’s some truth in their findings.

And that’s not all.

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When you do not have enough sleep, your body’s hormonal production is also affected. You find yourself coming face to face with Ghrelin (a hormone that controls hunger) a lot.

And on the flipside, you don’t get to meet Leptin (which regulates energy and signals to the brain when you are full) that much.

That being said, you get hungry easily thanks to Ghrelin.

Not forgetting the more common sense reasons. Not having enough sleep means you’re up and awake for a longer period of time, which gives you an opportunity to munch on something.

Anyone here guilty of watching Netflix overnight having potato chips as company?

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The struggle is real. And shows are just a lot nicer to watch when you have something to eat. Isn’t it?

Anyhow, remember to get at least 7 hours of rest every night. If you can’t, then maybe every other night?

Being tired has long term effects. Being lethargic for life is not a good thing because life should full of life, not laziness.

Consider resting early tonight. Or every day. You might just have your six-pacs after a few months.

Featured Image: releon8211 / Shutterstock.com

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Celeste Lee
Email: [email protected]