9 Things That Can Help You Lose Weight While Sleeping
anjala farahath .
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Are you someone who chooses to sleep their way out to deal with issues? Or do you find yourself curling up in bed whenever you have a couple of extra minutes to spare? Well, if you do, then you, my friend, know that sleep is a blessing that should be counted. Another blessing we all wish for is to eat all we want without putting on extra kilos. And to lose weight, we strive hard with an endless number of workouts, multiple diets, and what not. But often, we fail miserably. What if we told you that you can kill two birds with one stone—you can sleep all you want and also lose weight while at it!
According to Michael Breus, clinical director of sleep division at Arrowhead Health, Ariz, not getting enough sleep lands your metabolism in a sticky spot (1). Picture this: you’ve had a sleepless night, and in order to be able to concentrate at work, you order multiple cups of coffee and gorge on some unhealthy snacks to keep yourself energetic. You end up feeling lazy and exhausted and miss your workouts. Ultimately, you’re harboring extra calories.
The sleep-diet connection is real. If you snooze more, you lose more: lose weight, we mean! Don’t be baffled, we’ll tell you how exactly you can lose weight while you catch your ZZZs. Here are 9 things that can slim down your waistline while you get enough shut-eye:
1. Diminish Your Dinner Portion
Before you hit the sack, make sure your body doesn’t have to work too long to digest your last meal. Our body tends to store the food consumed late at night as fat. So, the more you eat, the more fat you’re adding on. Reduce your dinner portion and have your meal well in advance of your sleep time. Ideally, you should finish your meal 2-3 hours before the slumber sets in.
2. Discipline Yourself With A Strict Bedtime
If you find yourself binge-watching the latest episodes of your favorite show, or cheering for your favorite football team late in the night, even when the night sky has set out its dark velvety blanket for you to sleep, you need to discipline yourself. Studies suggest that 7-9 hours of sleep is essential for adults (2). So, hit the sack and set a deadline for yourself. Fine tune your circadian rhythm.
3. Shake Things Up With Protein Shakes
Move away from those energy drinks and make yourself a glass of protein shake to burn calories while you sleep. Research says that a mere 30 grams of proteins are all you need to get your body to work and burn more calories at rest (3). The more muscle your body has, the higher its potential to burn fat. And let’s not forget, protein repairs your muscles while you sleep.
4. Abstain From Alcohol
While we agree that alcohol can calm you down after a long day at work, we cannot ignore the fact that consuming alcohol right before bed overburdens your body’s metabolic processes. This, in turn, disrupts the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of slumber that is imperative for a calorie-cutting session. So, if you have plans of getting mildly inebriated, make sure you give enough time to your body to digest it.
5. Slip Into Your Birthday Suit
Minimalistic attire is what you need to focus on. The more covered you are, the warmer your body temperature is going to be, thus hampering a good sleep. The key is to keep your body cold and composed to catalyze the fat burning process, and sleeping naked helps you attain that!
6. Turn Off The Lights
No matter how many times Enrique asks you not to turn off the lights, you have to turn it off. Screen lights and bright lights are major disturbances to sleep. Dim the lights, cool down the room, and set the atmosphere to one that induces sleep. Sleeping in complete darkness helps the body in the production of the calorie-burning hormone—melatonin.
7. Soothe Yourself With Some Tea
There’s nothing like a cup of hot tea to beat insomnia and soothe your senses. Since the time of Kings and Queens, tea has been a popular remedy to fix sleep problems. Sip some tea an hour before your scheduled bedtime to slow down your brain activity and induce sedation. Lavender, valerian, peppermint, and chamomile tea leaves have great tranquilizing properties.
8. Keep It Cool
Our body is a remarkable mechanism. When our surroundings get really cold, our body puts brown adipose tissues (BAT), a kind of fat storage, to work. This actually burns fat so that our body gets some warmth. So, keeping the temperature cold while you crawl into the sheets is a great way to burn those calories effortlessly.
9. Say No To Late Workouts
Regular workouts keep your body healthy and fit. Additionally, after an intense workout, the body automatically shuts down soon as it demands rest, thereby inviting sleep. But, if you time your workouts really close to bedtime, it could backfire. The energy levels are really high right after a session at the gym and this could interfere with your sleep pattern. So, say no to late night workouts, unless it’s the kind that happens between the sheets!
So, the next time someone admonishes you for spending time in slumber, you can shoot them down with a little lesson on the health benefits that you derive from sleeping. What are your tricks to burning those calories the easy way? Let us know in the comments below!
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