Lighten Up - The Blog for a Healthy Lifestyle

How Does Sleep Affect the Scale?

Written by Jen Hazelwood | December 03, 2020

When we think of weight gain and weight loss we automatically think about the foods we eat and needing to exercise, but something that way too often gets overlooked and directly effects your weight is SLEEP!

Our bodies NEED about 8 hours of sleep a night. We need sleep for many reasons such as repairing the body, keeping our immune system strong, and keeping our mind sharp. We also need it to level our hormones that control our appetite. Believe it or not, it really is ALL about our hormones; specifically leptin and ghrelin. Leptin suppresses your appetite, and ghrelin increases your appetite. These hormones balance out throughout our sleep, but if we are sleep deprived then these hormones get thrown out of balance and guess what??? Your appetite gets CRAZY and can lead to unwanted weight gain! For this reason, it is very important to make sleep a priority to maintain a healthy lifestyle. While sleep is not the only factor that influences our weight and well-being, it does play a huge role in both. So get your beauty sleep!

To find out more about Sleep and Weight Loss Click HERE.