Why can’t I lose this fat? I diet, exercise and nothing seems to change?

Check this out…

The two groups in this randomized, crossed-over trial both had restriced caloric intake (the groups were all on the same calorie intake) but one group had 8.5 hours of sleep at night and the other group had 5.5 hours of sleep at night for only 14 days.

Guess what happened?

The group who had the 5.5 hours of sleep lost 55% LESS body fat and INCREASED the LOSS of their lean body mass (muscles) by 60%! Which means, the group with less sleep got FATTER on the same diet! Oye!

The link to this study is here, if you want to sit with it for a while.

Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts… [Ann Intern Med. 2010] – PubMed – NCBI.

In short, if you don’t get enough sleep at night, no matter how low the calorie intake is, or the amount of exercise you manage to perform, you will lose your muscles and GAIN stored body fat.

The trouble is getting to sleep and staying asleep, isn’t it?

The inquiry continues…..