Sleep VS Nutrition: Why You Need One to Improve the Other

Our busy lifestyles have made it difficult for many of us to maintain a healthy routine with 7-8 hours of sleep every night. There are many people who are trying to improve their lifestyle by exercising and changing their diet. Of course these steps are useful in getting into a better shape, but know what the number one priority should be? You guessed it, sleep.

Sleep and nutrition processing go hand in hand. Sleeping less than 7 hours a night can inhibit the benefits from dieting and eating good food. This has been published by a research published in Annals of Internal Medicine. A study was conducted with people with different sleep schedules and same diet. The people who got sufficient sleep managed to lose weight and half of that loss was from fat. People who didn’t get enough sleep could only lose half of that fat. Moreover, they were hungrier, less satisfied with meals and lacked energy.

The morning after a sleep deprived night causes us to feel dizzy, disorientated and grumpy. The same happens to fat cells. The metabolism gets hampered and it causes insulin dysfunction. Normally insulin helps to remove fatty acids and lipids and prevent storing them. Less sleep causes insulin to not function properly and excessive insulin stores fat at the wrong places, like liver tissue.

Lack of food makes a person crave for more food.  This readily hampers the dieting process and causes people to eat more until satiated. Cortisol is the hormone which is responsible for stress. Poor sleep causes more cortisol to secrete and growth hormone is hampered.

There is a direct connection between nutrition, good health and adequate sleep. Only diet and exercise alone are not enough if the body doesn’t get enough sleep so make sure to get enough rest for a healthy life.