Lose weight while you sleep

Losing weight while sleeping – is that really possible? Slim while you sleep diets promise easy weight loss overnight and are designed to promote metabolism and fat burning while you sleep. But can we specifically lose weight and become slimmer while we sleep? You can find out here what influence our sleep has on body weight and whether a restful night helps us lose weight successfully.

Table of contents

1. Slim while you sleep
2. How sleep influences weight loss
1. Natural metabolism & fat burning
2. Control of energy and fat metabolism
3. Promoting muscle building and fat burning
4. Regulation of the feeling of hunger and satiety
3. Slim & healthy with good sleep
4. Conclusion

1. Slim while you sleep

More than two thirds of men and women in Germany are considered overweight. Nowadays, an increasingly unhealthy and inactive lifestyle means that we cannot always maintain our normal weight, even though our weight is also crucial for the healthy functioning of the body and mind. Numerous weight loss methods such as low-carb, paleo and especially slim-while-sleep diets promise quick success in the fight against excess kilos. This should make it possible to achieve weight loss without major effort or rigid sacrifices and to lose those annoying pounds while you sleep. But what influence does adequate and restful sleep really have on body weight?

2. How sleep can influence weight loss

Natural metabolism & fat burning

Excess energy is basically stored by our body as an energy reserve in the fat and muscle cells to be used and “burned” later. Because our organism constantly needs energy, fat metabolism and the associated use of the body's own fat stores is a continuous process that occurs constantly. During sleep, numerous construction, repair and regeneration processes take place in the cells, metabolism and hormone production run at full speed and our brain processes the experiences and information of the day. Even when we sleep, the body needs a lot of energy, which is why fat metabolism is active and fat stores continue to be emptied - we lose weight.

How long we sleep is, according to studies, crucial for how much of the energy required during sleep comes from the breakdown of muscle mass or excess fat reserves. If you slept for a sufficient amount of time, it was shown that more than 50% of the weight lost consisted of fat, while after 3 hours less sleep per night, significantly more muscle mass and only up to 25% fat could be lost.

Here you can find out how much sleep we need each night.

Control of energy and fat metabolism

Cortisol, known as the stress hormone, is significantly involved in our sleep-wake rhythm. While the sleep hormone melatonin makes us tired in the evening, the increased release of cortisol at the end of our sleep ensures that we wake up again in the morning. Together with other messenger substances, cortisol is responsible for our energy level and, among other things, regulates the supply of energy in the body by initiating the breakdown of sugar, protein and fat. Healthy sleep promotes a balanced cortisol level, which promotes fat loss, which is important for weight loss, and can in turn have a positive effect on sleep behavior.

 

Promoting muscle building and fat burning

At night and especially in the deep sleep phases, essential growth hormones (Human Growth Hormone) are released, which play a key role in building new cells and muscle structures and also stimulate fat burning. A healthy, deep sleep therefore has a beneficial effect on muscle and cell growth, while at the same time supporting the breakdown of excess fat reserves.

Regulation of the feeling of hunger and satiety

The feeling of hunger and satiety is mainly controlled by the two hormones leptin and ghrelin. While we produce more of the appetite-stimulating ghrelin when we are awake, the leptin produced directly in the fat cells ensures that there is no pronounced feeling of hunger while we sleep and we do not feel any appetite. Studies show that a lack of sleep impairs the ghrelin-leptin cycle and thus promotes a pronounced feeling of hunger during the day. Anyone who gets enough and restful sleep contributes to the healthy functioning of the body's hunger and/or Feels full and prevents, for example, nasty cravings that get in the way of a balanced diet and targeted weight loss.

3. Slim & healthy with good sleep!

Finally, it becomes clear that sufficient and restful sleep is certainly one of the important prerequisites for healthy weight loss. How effectively the natural fat burning and the hormonal and metabolic processes that take place during sleep really work in the weight loss process depends on many other factors. Diet during the day and before going to bed plays a crucial role, for example because our body is not able to digest and burn fat at the same time. However, good sleep alone is not enough to sustainably lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. “Slim while you sleep” is not a real myth, but rather one of many building blocks of a healthy lifestyle, which is ultimately the basic requirement for achieving and maintaining a normal body weight and a healthy everyday life.

4. Conclusion

• Fat burning and metabolism also take place during sleep to provide the body with energy for regeneration
• The duration of sleep determines whether we lose more fat or muscle mass overnight
• Sleep is important for a balanced cortisol level, which in turn has a positive effect on sleep behavior and promotes the reduction of body fat
• Growth hormones released during sleep stimulate fat burning and the development of cell and muscle structures
• The hormone leptin is produced during sleep and acts as an appetite suppressant against strong appetite or hunger attacks
• Weight loss through sufficient and restful sleep is possible, but ultimately depends on other factors and is only one of many factors for healthy weight loss and a healthy body weight

Greetings and see you soon!