Are you eating well (be honest) and working out hard (with intervals and resistance training) at least three days a week?

Did the initial  weight loss slow down or stall all together?

Are you considering cutting back your calories even more or ramping up your exercise efforts?

Well before you do that, there is another part of the fitter you 2.0 program that you should consider increasing before you try the aforementioned strategies.

And what would that be?

Sleep.

It is recommended that the average person get between 7-9 hours of sleep a night (8.5 hours being the ideal) with a few 30 minute naps thrown in through out the week for good measure.

I know what you are now saying at your computer screen.  ”Yeah, right.  I don’t have the time to get that much sleep.”  ”Naps.  What’s a nap?” “I catch up on my sleep on the weekends.” This kind of thinking is probably why the average person only gets about 4-6 hours a night.

But not getting a full night’s sleep (remember 8.5 hours) can have some serious effects on your fat loss and fitness goals.

You remember those goals (i.e. resolutions) you made a couple weeks ago, don’t you.

1.)  Lack of sleep can cause fat gain. Not getting enough sleep has been shown in studies to increase the production of a hormone in your body called cortisol. Increased cortisol production has been shown to cause your body to store fat.  And cortisol especially loves to help you store fat in your stomach.

What lack of sleep can do to a FGAA member….and you. Real photo. Not doctored.

2.)  Your workouts will suffer. Not only will you not be able to workout out at 100% capacity, you will not be giving your body the recovery time it needs to rejuvenate and repair itself for the next workout. Also, if you are tired during your workouts your form will suffer.  Bad form leads to injuries.  Injuries lead to lack of exercise.  Lack of exercise leads to fat gain.

He’s getting in his recovery time.  If you can’t see the book, it reads “1,001 Ways To Get Fit.”

3.)  Not sleeping enough leads to a weakening of your immune system.  If your immune system is in a weakened state it makes you WAY more susceptible to whatever germs or viruses are lurking about.  You can’t work on your fat loss and fitness goals when you on the couch with a bucket ready.  And by the way, any weight loss that occurs when you are sick is most likely water and lean tissue. No, any weight loss is not good weight loss.

Just because this pig is cute doesn’t mean getting the swine flu will be.

Now that you know how important sleep is for your fat loss and fitness goals I want you to turn off your computer find a nice comfortable place and take a nice long nap.  Or if you are reading this in the middle of night, GO TO BED ALREADY!!!!

Your friend and trainer,

Paul

Tags: 7-9 hours, cortisol, easy weight loss, fat loss, naps, recovery, Sleep, weight loss

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Fitness, Weight Loss Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Paul | in Fitness, Weight Loss Strategies | 3 Comments