5 Habits That Hurt Your Sleep and Make You Gain Weight
Happy Humpday Empyreans! Carl Here!
“You snooze, you lose” takes on a whole different meaning when it comes to losing unwanted body fat.
Sleep is essential for your muscles to grow and function properly, and if you’re like most Americans, you’re not getting nearly enough. According to a national survey, 75 percent of Americans aren’t getting enough sleep—5.68 hours of restful sleep on average—and 58 percent of people polled wish they knew how to increase those nighttime numbers. Maybe that’s why recent numbers have 66.3 percent of our population categorized as overweight or obese.
Stressed out all the time?! Sleep!
There is good news: getting more sleep can help you drop unwanted pounds of fat and gain considerable amounts of muscle mass. If that’s not as simple for you as crawling into bed a little earlier, these bad habits might be keeping you from getting the hours you need to shake those stubborn pounds clinging to your frame.
Adjust your evening routine and get plenty of healthy weight-loss foods, and you’ll be dropping pounds in no time!
1. Eating a Big Meal Before Bed
While you shouldn’t go to bed starving (that presents its own sleep-busting problems), you also shouldn’t hit the sack completely stuffed. When you eat a large meal before bed, your body is working to digest it long into the night — and if your body is still worked up, so are you. The later you fall asleep, the less rest you’ll get, and you’ll wake up feeling groggy and more likely to reach for calorie-dense items like these unhealthy breakfast foods.
Healthy Tip to Avoid Late Night Binging:
Instead of eating a monster meal for dinner, try to keep portions about the same as your breakfast and lunch, especially if you eat dinner on the later side. “Dinner size will vary per person, but aim to eat more slowly to allow your stomach and brain to communicate the message that you're full and it's time to stop eating,” says Isabel Smith, MS, RD, CDN, registered dietitian and founder of Isabel Smith Nutrition. “You want to eat your last meal at least an hour or two before going to bed,” she adds.
2. Eating Chocolate
Don’t get us wrong; chocolate has a lot going for it. In fact, any bar that contains at least 70% cacao is one of our favorite low-sugar snacks or desserts because of its high concentration of antioxidants and stress-busting abilities.
Unfortunately, if eaten too late that chocolate could be the reason you can’t fall asleep. Dark chocolate contains caffeine, which can prevent your body from shutting down when you want it to if you’re sensitive to the compound.
Healthy Tip to Avoid Being Wired:
Chocolate bars have varying amounts of caffeine, but an average two-ounce, 70 percent dark chocolate bar contains around 79 milligrams. For reference, an eight-ounce cup of coffee contains around 145 milligrams. If you know you’re sensitive to caffeine, but don’t want to ditch the dark chocolate completely, try savoring your sweet treat earlier on in the night or cutting down on portions.
3. Exercising Too Late
Regular workouts have been found to help ease sleepless nights, but hitting the gym too late can mess with your body clock. Exercising close to bedtime—within about two hours—can energize your body so much that it may not be able to wind down when it’s time to call it a night.
2:30am ...better than being at a bar and drinking booze!
Healthy Tip to Avoid Exercising Too Late:
If you’re not a morning person, try to exercise right after work or midday if your schedule allows. That way, you can head home, eat dinner, and relax knowing you’ll be able to fall fast asleep when the time comes. If you’re stuck at the office really late, you’re better off skipping your workout for the night and hitting the hay early. If your body gets the rest it needs you’re more likely to stay on track with your healthy eating and workouts in the days that follow.
4. Late Night Screen Time
Let your phone charge, so you have a chance to recharge, too. The light from screens on your phone or tablet actually suppresses the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. Resist turning on the tube, too. Watching your favorite late night shows stimulate your mind and can make it harder for you to shut down.
Try dimming your phone’s brightness as much as possible to minimize melatonin suppression!
Healthy Tip to Avoid Excessive Screen Time:
If you can’t stop trolling Instagram before you attempt to nod off, try dimming your phone’s brightness as much as possible to minimize melatonin suppression. However, the best thing you can do is put the device away and limit your time spent using it before bedtime. Start by shutting down at least 20 minutes before bed, and if you can, increase the time gap between screen time and bedtime each night until you put the phone away one to two hours before you turn in.
5. Not Packing Your Lunch
Preparation is what weight loss plans rely on, and failing to plan ahead could be why you can’t shake those pesky pounds. Forgetting to pack your lunch or high-protein snacks the night before means you have to navigate the office cafeteria or surrounding casual food spots when the lunch hour hits — and hope they post nutrition information...
Healthy Tip to Prep Food:
Use your Sunday evenings to cook food for the week ahead, or at least the next few days. Things like chicken breast, grilled veggies, or lentil and quinoa salads are easy to make in big batches, and you can spread them out throughout the week. To make things even easier, portion the food out into containers as soon as you’re done cooking so that you can grab one and run in the morning.
6. Pouring a Glass of Wine
Wine is touted as the “healthy” alcoholic drink due to its resveratrol content—a plant compound that has been linked to heart-healthy benefits. However, what you may not realize is that your evening glass of wine is considered a high-sugar beverage according to Smith, and drinking too much can hinder your ability to snooze. Alcohol in general negatively influences sleep quality. It may feel like that nightly glass of wine is relaxing you and helping you fall asleep faster, but it actually prevents your body from fully indulging in its REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle, which is where truly restful sleep and dreaming occurs.
Drink herbal tea, like chamomile, to relax and wind you down before bed, not alcohol!
Healthy Tip to Control Wine Drinking:
Try swapping out your glass of vino for a soothing cup of herbal tea before bed — your waistline will thank you, too. If you can knock the alcohol a night, you’ll slash quite a few calories from your total for the day, which will lead to even greater fitness gains. But if you can’t ditch the wine all together, try to enjoy a glass earlier in the night—about two hours before bedtime—to avoid sleep disruption, and close the home bar after one or two glasses — tops.
7. Eating Spicy Foods
Spicy foods may rev up your metabolism, but they’re also ruining your chances at falling asleep. According to Smith, spices like cayenne and Tabasco not only boost metabolism, but also get your blood flowing, which can be bothersome for some before bed.
Healthy Tip Around Spicy Foods:
Eat your spices earlier on in the day and stick to flavoring with herbs at night. Or, if you leave a few hours between your last meal and bed—especially if it’s on the spicier side—you’ll be able to avoid issues when you hit the lights later.
There You Have It!
Try your very hardest to avoid or greatly reduce these 5 habits if you feel like you do them on a daily basis. Sleep is very important for many reasons. Its the only time when the body can shut down and truly recharge itself. If these habits suppress this process it will be very hard to reach any fitness goal regardless of how well you eat or how intense your workouts are. Always remember this saying:
"Muscles are torn in the gym, fed in the kitchen, and grown in bed."
You'll see a big difference in size, energy, and mood when the appropriate amount of sleep is acquired every night. Sleep, besides exercise, is the only true way your body can buffer out all of the fat-storing, stress hormones that get built up in the body throughout the course of the day. So do us a favor PLEAZZZZ and catch some ZZZZZZZ's.
