Week 2 Tip of the Day Thursday: Sleep

Sleep: An Important Factor of Why You Are Not Losing Weight or Gaining Muscle

10/5/17

There are two main things that dictate what we do each day: 1) how much money we need to support ourselves and 2) how much time we have to do everything. Schedules get hectic when you have to fulfill a full time job, family and kids, and personal life on top of that. One thing that always gets pushed to the side is sleep. So many adults are getting less than the 7-9 hours of recommended sleep they need each night for their bodies to function properly. But when you are training, whether it be for muscle gain or fat loss, and don't get the proper sleep, it's like you are shooting yourself in the foot because how you recover from sleep is far more important than spending two hours at the gym killing yourself.

The saying "what you do outside of the gym is the most important" is very true. Along with nutrition, sleep is needed to be able to recover properly from a workout or even after a long day of work. I wanted to  show you what can happen to your body when you don't get enough sleep when trying to build muscle and lose fat:

Building Muscle

  • Growth Hormone (GH) is directly contributed with muscle growth. GH is tightly linked with
    sleep. If you get any less than 7 1/2 hours of sleep you miss the chance of going through a complete sleep cycle and miss the chance of having GH released into your body. 
  • Testosterone, another hormone that helps with muscle production, is affected when there is a lack of sleep. This hormone is produced naturally is both men and women (more in men of course) and if the recommended sleep is not achieved, testosterone could be reduced
  • Lack of sleep will cause an increase in cortisol, the stress hormone. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone. Your body releases cortisol to respond to the stress your body produces if you don't get enough sleep which in return breaks down muscle tissue to get the energy it needs to deal with the stress. Those increased levels of cortisol can threaten your muscle development if inadequate sleep happens on a daily basis.
Fat Loss
  • Losing sleep can affect your fat loss goals by messing with your "Calories IN" and "Calories OUT"
  • "Calories IN" - Losing sleep throws off your hormone levels, including the hormones regulating appetite. Ghrelin affects your hunger; leptin affects your fullness. Sleep loss can interfere with the balance of both levels. Lack of sleep causes your brain to tell your body that it's more hungrier than normal. Although you won't eat bigger meals, you will snack more often during your awake hours leading to an increase of calories in. Over time, those calories will add up and will negate the hard work you will be putting at the gym.
  • "Calories OUT" - Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) makes up the majority of calories you burn each day to help your body function properly and is linked with lean body mass (more muscle = higher BMR, less muscle = lower BMR). BMR usually stays the same unless you are not getting enough sleep. Since lack of sleep can decrease your muscle mass potential for building and maintaining, your BMR will be affected also. Sleep deprivation can affect your energy expenditure for each day. If you are tired from not sleeping. how do you expect to workout and burn off calories without feeling like death the whole time? Your motivation will be low and your preparedness may be impaired. Also your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) will decrease because if you have a hard time trying to workout, then you certainly won't have the energy to do everyday activities like cleaning the house or mowing the lawn.
The main point is lack of sleep will affect your body composition whether you are trying to build muscle or lose fat. The recommended amount of sleep every adult should get is 7-9 hours. If training hard on top of that, I would recommended getting the higher end of 8-9 hours to really give the rest your body needs to recover. Find ways to get more sleep and you will see a change in your body along with the right supplementation of exercise and nutrition.

See everyone tomorrow for the second Fun Friday challenge! It's going to be one you don't want to miss.

Best,

Ryan

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