The Hindu Business Line : Sleep on it

Everyone knows about the importance of calories in the struggle to lose weight. Now research adds new twists to the perennial "how to lose weight" tale. One of the latest theories is that sleep deprivation is tied to weight gain. The results of a Columbia University study on the relationship between sleep patterns and obesity were reported at the recent annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.

The findings show that people who sleep for two to four hours a day are 73 per cent more likely to be obese than those who get normal sleep (seven to nine hours). Five hours of sleep a day makes one 50 per cent more likely to be obese, and six hours brings this likelihood down to 23 per cent. The findings defy logic because we burn fewer calories when asleep.

The key here is to understand the beneficial effects of adequate sleep on body weight — achieved by the regulation of bodily chemicals during sleep. Says lead researcher James E. Gangwisch, "Getting more sleep actually has a protective effect against obesity." Another study at the University of Chicago shows that sleep deprivation contributes to overeating and weight gain.

During the study, participants were restricted to four hours of sleep each night, and their food intake and activity levels strictly monitored. After merely six nights of sleep deprivation, they demonstrated a decrease in leptin (a hormone that communicates satiety or fullness to the brain — when levels are high, the brain knows you are full, when levels are low, the brain thinks the body needs nourishment) ranging from 19 to 26 per cent.

Participants with the greatest decrease in leptin reported feeling the hungriest and craved for carbohydrate-rich foods, while those with less significant leptin decreases reported being the least hungry.

Both studies indicate that when you are not getting enough sleep, it becomes more difficult to control your appetite and the risk of overeating is consequently greater.

Drinking enough water every day also helps keep weight in check. Besides making one feel full and flushing out toxins from the body, water has several other benefits, too.

German researcher Michael Boschmann and colleagues from Berlin's Franz-Volhard Clinical Research Centre report that adequate daily water consumption increases the rate at which people burn calories (The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism). The general recommendation of 8-10 glasses a day stands, whether one goes for a hi-carb or a hi-protein weight-loss plan.

Another aspect to watch out for is "eating amnesia" or forgotten nibbling, which, researchers say, can undo all weight loss efforts. Stolen bites like a handful of a friend's popcorn at the movies or finishing off a child's leftover snack can rack up a few hundred uncounted calories, which can add pounds fast. Eating while distracted is also included in this kind of amnesia.

When women who normally watch their portions had lunch in different situations, researchers found that they ate 15 per cent more — 72 additional calories if they ate while listening to a detective story compared with what they ate alone and free of any distractions (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

When trying to lose weight, most people target excess calories. But they often overlook something equally important — psychological stress. Dr Pamela Peeke (Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore, US) explains how stress affects weight loss in her book, Fight Fat After Forty.

"When you face a threatening situation, your body secretes adrenaline to initiate the `fight-or-flight' response. Adrenaline readies muscles for action, triggers the metabolism of fat reserves for energy and suppresses appetite. Once the danger is past, cortisol takes over. This hormone increases appetite, so that your body can replace the used-up energy. The end result is that when the stress abates, we eat to replace energy that was never used — building up more toxic fat," she writes.

Continued stress also leads to higher levels of cortisol, which encourages hoarding of fat in the body. Dr Peeke's advice: "To lose weight and keep it off, strive for stress reduction as well as calorie reduction."

In New Delhi, weight-loss consultant Dr Shikha Sharma gives general guidelines in view of emerging research. Common mistakes include skipping breakfast, not eating enough, drastic diets, starving all day, snacking on high-calorie foods, ignoring fibre in the daily diet, wolfing on junk, and not reading the labels (on fat content) carefully.

"The best approach," she says, "involves stress management, sensible eating, exercise and sleeping enough every day. In effect, a complete lifestyle makeover."

Picture: The Hindu Photo Library

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