Is Sleep an Aid in Achieving Your Fitness Goals?

When you think about your dream body, what are the first few things that come to your mind when it comes to achieving that goal? Diet and exercise.  Though, this is true, but there is something that is just as important as diet and exercise in order to achieve your fitness goals.  And that is SLEEP.  We all have insanely busy lives and there never seems to be enough hours in the day that we often sacrifice our sleep, but that is doing so much more harm than good.  You may feel like you are getting more done throughout the day but your sleep is SO IMPORTANT.

According to research in the Annals of Internal Medicine, not sleeping enough (or sleeping less than seven hours per night) actually reduces or undos the benefits of dieting.  In the study, dieters were put on different sleep schedules.  The first half, got an adequate amount of sleep and saw that their body fat was cut into half.  The other half, did not get enough sleep and their fat loss was cut in half – and the two groups were put on the same diet.

SO…why the heck does this happen?!  When you don’t get enough sleep, do you ever feel groggy, drowsy, and gross the next day? I feel like even when I do get enough sleep I feel this way LOL but thats probably because I am extremely sleep deprived.  But, when you are sleep deprived your fat cells undergo a metabolic grogginess which causes you too feel that lack of energy and drowsiness.  And the lack of rest makes you more hungry, and when you are more hungry and drowsy, you are more apt to reach for unhealthy foods and snacks.

I almost took on an overnight position at work because the pay was better.  But, I sat back and realized that my sleep is so important, and I personally do not work well on little sleep…I become a B**** LOL.  I need my sleep.  And on top of that, our bodies need to get the proper amount of sleep in order to function correctly.

Do you ever feel like not going out with your friends, or just wanting to stay in and Wine and Netflix? Use sleep as an excuse… “oh sorry I need to get sleep tonight or everything I did on my diet today won’t matter.”

*Stays up and watches Scandal all night…gets no sleep*

But really though, make sure you are getting enough sleep, you will notice a HUGE change in your body mentally and physically!

Much Love,

Alex