Did you know, you can even burn fat while you sleep? You can even speed up your metabolism! While you are getting some well earned shut-eye, your body is working to restore itself and thus, burn off fat. However, you have to make sure you get your full eight hours.
In order to truly benefit from the weight loss benefits of sleep, you have to make some changes to your diet and routine as follows:
Make sure you are eating the right foods for sleep. Tryptophan is an amino acid found in most meats. It contains an amino acid which has sleep inducing effects. If you cant sleep on an empty stomach, have a healthy snack of nuts, chicken, fish, lentils or eggs to take the edge off your hunger. Not only will this bedtime snack make you satisfied, but you will also get all the restorative properties needed for fat burning and recovery whilst you sleep.
Do not eat a big meal any later than 2-3 hours before bed!
Block out the light! When you are in complete darkness, you will start to produce a hormone called melatonin – his makes you feel sleepy and can aid in the calorie burning process. This means turning off all the lights, turning round glowing clocks and keeping the TV and computer off. Investing in some black out curtains would help in keeping out that unwanted streetlight glow.
Keep your cool! keeping your room cooler coulee help you burn more calories. Studies show that people who sleep in 18°C burn 7% more calories than those who sleep in warmer rooms. The likely cause for this is the increased effort required in raising and maintaining core body temperature, thus burning the extra calories.
While this does not sound like much, in 24 sleeping hours you could burn an extra 100 calories!
Turn down the brightness, shut down that display! Turn on night shift on your iPhone when it gets dark, but before you get ready for bed you should be shutting down all bedroom electronics… Try to avoid using your phone within the hour before bed, and don’t sleep with it in arms reach… its not good to be disrupting your sleep by constantly checking your phone and this causes unnecessary brain stimulation. Short-wavelength blue light emitted by tablets and smartphones disrupts the body’s production of melatonin and as a result can disrupt metabolism.
Cut down unnecessary screen time in general. Long television and screen time has been liked to higher levels of triglycerides, which are associated with metabolic syndrome and diabetes, as well as lower adiponectin which is involved in regulating glucose levels and the breakdown of fatty acids.
Commit to a healthy number of sleeping hours per night and set a regular bed time. It is recommended that you get 7-8 hours sleep a night in order to burn more calories. well rested people’s energy expenditure was 5 percent higher than that of tired counterparts. They also burn 20% more calories than people who got less sleep. Research shows that lack of sleep makes fat cells less sensitive to insulin, and this is linked to obesity.
By eating the following foods during the day you will burn off more calories than each food contains, while you are soundly sleeping: citrus fruits, legumes, dairy foods and whole grains.
