The not-so-secret, secret to optimizing your health and fitness gains
We are all on a health and fitness journey in one way or another. The goals change, the circumstances and situations vary, but one thing that does not fluctuate often is the desire to be efficient in the process of achieving goals. In fact, there is a billion dollar industry of supplements, equipment, gym memberships that are all designed to show you the secret to your goals. One factor that is greatly overlooked for flashier trends is something everyone needs, but many discount its need and effectiveness: sleep. So let's talk about what sleep does for you in general and how it is one of the most important factors on a weight loss and fitness journey.
The Baseline Advantages of Sleep
Sleep is a necessity that we all need and it goes beyond just making sure that you don’t feel tired the next day. It has a lasting and deep impact on your brain function and hormone regulation. Sleep also provides an opportunity for the body to repair and heal itself from the day's activities.
When the body goes into deep sleep, the brain does several different things, two major ones being solidifying memories and removing toxins. So if you seem to be having a foggy
memory regularly, getting sleep is going to be imperative. As for the toxins removal, there have been studies that show the brain possibly changes functions while in deep sleep to remove toxins from itself, including ones that are linked to Alzheimer's Disease. The body also uses this time to repair many different functions. These range from muscle and blood vessel repair to hormone balance. One of the main hormones affected by sleep is the stress hormone, cortisol, which we will discuss shortly. Sleep also helps with blood sugar regulation and governing your body’s immune process.
And just to put a finer point on the necessity of sleep for your brain and body, a consistent lack of sleep can lead to many adverse effects, including but not limited to: increase in the chances of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, and the subject of the next part of this article: obesity.
How Sleep Affects Weight Loss and Fitness
There are more than a few things that sleep does for your health and fitness journey. Some of the more obvious ones are that it reduces that amount of time available to snack (late night snacks can tend to be high calorie affairs), having less brain fog can help in the decision making when considering foods and exercise, and having more energy means less reliance on things that provide energy through extra calories or stimulants that many not be healthy.
Sleep, as mentioned earlier, also helps regulate and reduce the stress hormone cortisol. This is important because cortisol is a hormone that you need that helps regulate different functions throughout the body that are imperative for a healthy body. But without proper
deep sleep, the body cannot properly govern its cortisol, which can lead to elevated levels throughout the day. As one of the regulators of your metabolism, increased cortisol levels can increase the amount of body fat you retain. Along with increased high calorie snacking that often comes from lack of sleep, this could be a real detriment to a weight loss journey. And if your main goal is more about increasing fitness and muscle mass, sleep is also very useful. Deep sleep is the most efficient time for your body’s repair phase. Repairing muscle from strength workouts and resting your body after cardio sessions are a lot more effective with a restful night of sleep. Essentially, you will feel better and recover faster the more deep sleep you get.
In conclusion, get your sleep! It helps your brain function, body recover, and reduce the possibility of long term disease. No matter your goal and whatever else you are using to help you on your health and fitness goals, consistent deep sleep will help you progress to where you want to be.
Written by Curtis Gee, Elite Personal Trainer
Curtis has been teaching, coaching, and educating since before he could drive. Starting with youth and high school sports, leading to teaching and helping at-risk high schoolers graduate, to most recently, working with athletes and adults to achieve their health, fitness, and sporting goals. When not at the gym training others or working on his own fitness, Curtis is an avid gamer, basketball junkie, and enjoys martial arts movies.
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