Can insufficient sleep hamper your diet?
Sleep restriction has been shown to have several detrimental health effects. Does sleep restriction also affect fat loss?
This study compared the effect of sleep duration on fat and lean mass loss in overweight subjects during two weeks of dieting. One group spent 5.5 h in bed, while the other spend 8.5 h in bed. Subjects stayed at the laboratory during the whole study period and all food was provided (90% of resting metabolic rate).
The 5.5 h group lost 55% less fat mass (0.6 vs 1.4 kg) compared to the 8.5 h group. In addition, the 5.5 h group lost 60% more lean body mass (2.4 vs 1.5 kg) compared to the 8.5 h group.
Interestingly, the 5.5 h group had higher concentrations of acylated (activated) ghrelin, which is known as a hunger hormone.
A strength of this study was that nutritional intake was tightly controlled. However, a limitation of this approach is that sleep restriction may also have a detrimental effect of food choices. Therefore, the effect of sleep restriction on body composition goals may be even worse under such conditions.
Study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Go to the next infographic in the sleep series:
Caffeine decreases sleep duration?
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