Are 'calories in, calories out' not working for you? Are you doing everything right... eating less, exercising more, buying meal plans, following programs, and still can't lose weight?? Or you lose the weight and as soon as you fall off your routine, you gain it all back?! These are all signs that you're experiencing weight loss resistance.
Yes, exercise and nutrition are key to meeting your body composition goals but there is way more to the equation.
Sleep is one of the most overlooked factors that assist with sustainable weight loss and optimal metabolism.
The importance of sleep
When you are learning and being productive all day, your brain creates waste byproducts. At night, the lymphatic system excretes the waste. If we are not sleeping deep enough, these processes don't happen efficiently. And when poor sleep becomes chronic, the list of side effects lengthens. Some of the results of chronic sleep deprivation include:
Hormonal imbalance
Mood changes, like increased irritability
Higher risk of chronic diseases
Inability to concentrate
Memory loss
More snack cravings
Research also suggests that sleep deprivation is equal to binge drinking. It can cause you to take 4% longer to complete tasks and make 20% more errors.
Additionally,
Your memories are critically dependent upon the quality of your sleep
Poor sleep quality can double the risk of heart attack
Short-term sleep deprivation can increase insulin resistance
Working night shift is a group 2a carcinogen; increases the risk of breast cancer by 30% in women and increases the risk of colorectal cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease by 50%
There are higher rates of diabetes, in night shift workers (increase in insulin resistance)
Sleep deprivation doubles your risk of work-related injury
The circadian rhythm and hormones
Poor or irregular sleep disrupts our circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is our body's internal 24-hour, sleep-wake cycle. It's a schedule that lets us know when it's time to wake up, go to sleep, and eat.
A disrupted circadian rhythm promotes obesity and poor metabolic health and drives inflammation, weight gain, and weight loss resistance.
Hormones like cortisol (stress), leptin (satiation), melatonin (sleep), and ghrelin (hunger) help regulate the rate of your metabolism (how effectively you use energy) and these are the hormones that work hand in hand with your circadian rhythm.
Leptin
Leptin is a hormone that gets released from fat stores and signals to your brain that you are full. It's like an appetite suppressant and it regulates long-term energy balance. But, with poor sleep, you can develop leptin resistance, where the body stops responding to leptin. This results in constant hunger and increased food intake despite having excess or low amounts of body fat. Leptin resistance is also a precursor to insulin resistance.
To put it simply, one night of being sleep-deprived increases levels of leptin making it hard to resist junk food. This is actually an issue of survival. The primitive brain activity increases due to the stress of no sleep and that decreases the activity of the frontal cortex. So basically, you think you need to eat to survive.
Additionally, one poor night of sleep acutely raises ghrelin levels (hunger hormone).
CRAZY, RIGHT? This is why after a night of drinking (extremely lowers QUALITY of sleep), you feel like you can eat all the greasy food in the world ALL DAY.
Melatonin
Melatonin signals to the brain that it's time to get ready for sleep, but that's not all it does. Some people don’t produce enough or suppress it (stress/cortisol, blue light, swing shift). And low melatonin levels are associated with weight gain. Melatonin also plays a role in regulating blood sugar. When working correctly, melatonin helps us store less sugar as body fat. Decreased melatonin is also associated with leaky gut and autoimmune diseases which affect weight loss.
Cortisol
Cortisol we know is the stress hormone. It is naturally higher in the morning as our body is waking up and assessing for danger. Cortisol naturally lowers throughout the day and directly affects our sleep. If you have dysregulated cortisol, you struggle with blood sugar, insulin, fat storage, cravings, appetite, and SLEEP.
How to get great sleep
With all that being said, we need to prioritize sleep hygiene to meet our weight loss goals, not to mention good energy levels, memory retention, cognitive function, reaction time, productivity, disease prevention, and longevity.
Timing
I am not going to tell you exactly how much sleep to get because everyone is different. Some people thrive off six hours, some can't function without nine. But the MINIMUM you need to get is six hours. This ensures at least four cycles of deep NREM sleep.
Additionally, you want to be ASLEEP by 10 pm. 10 pm to 2 am is when you get the best sleep because hormone production is at its peak. And often, when you stay up past 10, you get a second wind energy and have difficulty falling asleep.
Another bio-hack that you can try is timing your alarm to your NREM cycles. Did you ever get 8 hours of sleep and wake up SO tired? It's probably because your alarm went off when you were in the middle of a deep NREM cycle. If you time your sleep for exactly 6 hours, 7.5 hours, or 9 hours, you will not wake up in the middle of a cycle.
Bedtime routine
A great day starts the night before. Schedule a head-hits-the-pillow time and start winding down 1 hour before that time. Shower, brush your teeth, take your supplements, etc., and put on some loose PJs. It's really important that you don't go on your phone or watch TV during this time because the blue light from these screens decreases your melatonin. A great alternative would be to read a good book or journal about your day. If you still have trouble falling asleep, play a meditation from youtube, pray, or do deep breathing exercises to slow down your mind.
Environment
Creating a sleep sanctuary can help you feel more relaxed and sleep deeper. Fresh air and house plants keep the air oxidized and clean while you sleep. Keeping your room pitch black supports adequate melatonin levels. Keeping phones and all electronics outside the room to avoid electromagnetic fields manipulating your brain waves. You can even go a step further and turn your wifi off at night. Lastly, keep your bedroom cool. Sleeping in warmer temperatures increases arousal and promotes low-quality sleep.
Gut health
Serotonin runs the internal clock. It is produced in the gut and is influenced by diet and light exposure. Low levels of serotonin can contribute to insomnia. Serotonin also makes melatonin and melatonin also regulates the circadian timing system, in addition to, blood pressure, body temperature, cortisol levels, antioxidant defenses, and immune function.
Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland but the GI tract contains 400x more melatonin than the pineal gland. It is secreted naturally when it gets dark outside and improves sleep quality.
Lastly, poor-quality sleep skews gut bacteria. And gut bacteria controls a lot of our digestion, nutrient absorption, hormones, and blood sugar- which are all important to weight loss.
Sunlight
Getting exposure to sunlight in your eyes (without sunglasses) in the morning can help you sleep at night because it helps reset your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is most sensitive one hour after waking up. Getting sunlight exposure at this time increases serotonin, increases alertness, and allows you to create adequate amounts of melatonin at night.
Nutrition
Eating before bed can disrupt sleep quality because digestion is less effective at night and it can cause blood sugar dysregulation. Eat no earlier than 90 min before bed. Eat a high-fat low-carb snack if you have to eat before bed. High-carb foods close to bedtime will cause a spike and then crash in the middle of the night- pulling you out of deeper sleep.
Nutrient deficiencies will lead to poor eating and poor sleep overall. You can eat an adequate amount of calories but still can be starving from nutrients. Eat lots of veggies and healthy fats and proteins for your first meal.
Foods that will help you sleep:
Selenium- brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, oysters, beef, mushrooms
Vitamin C- camu camu berry, oranges, lemon
Tryptophan- turkey, chicken eggs, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds
Potassium- avocados, potatoes, broccoli
Calcium- kale, collard, sesame seeds
Vitamin D3- salmon, oysters, shitake mushrooms, SUN
Omega 3- chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax
Magnesium- spinach, almonds, dark chocolate
Glycine- legumes, fish, dairy
Melatonin- cherries, walnuts, asparagus, pineapples, tomatoes, bananas
Vitamin B6- yogurt, cashews
Probiotics- pickles, miso, yogurt, kombucha
Prebiotics- artichokes, raw garlic, onions, asparagus
Supplements for sleep
Magnesium glycinate
Reishi mushroom
Chamomile
Valerian root
L-theanine
MelatoninMelatonin doesn’t help you sleep but it helps you sync with your environment and regulates the release of other hormones. If you take too much, you develop a tolerance and desensitization of melatonin receptors. It's good to take in spot cases or if you are deficient (melatonin production decreases as you age).
Avoiding sleep disrupters
Below is a list of known sleep and circadian disrupters to avoid.
Alcohol
Sugar
Certain medications
Coffee after 2 pm
Bright lights and screens
EMF's
Exercise right before bed
Eating within 2 hours before bed
References
Powell, M. (2023, May 22). Weight loss resistance: how hormones, nutrition, digestion & toxic load affect your fat loss (No. 9). In the Fueled & Free Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fueled-free-podcast/id1676513108?i=1000611566725.
Stevenson, S. (2021). Eat smarter: Use the power of food to reboot your metabolism, upgrade your brain, and transform your life. Little, Brown.
Stevenson, S. (2016). Sleep smarter: 21 essential strategies to sleep your way to a better body, better health, and bigger success. Rodale Books.
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