How a simple tweak to your daily routine could help you shed pounds
SLEEPING properly could help you lose weight, a study claims.
Researchers found that people who reported getting a regular, uninterrupted night’s kip were better at sticking to exercise and diet plans.
The study tracked how quality of sleep affected whether 125 overweight Americans stuck to a weight-loss programme.
People who regularly slept the recommended seven to nine hours were more likely to attend group sessions, as well as meet calorie and exercise goals.
Dr Christopher Kline, of the University of Pittsburgh, said: “Focusing on obtaining good sleep may help people stick with their physical activity and dietary goals.
“We didn’t expect to see an association between sleep health and all three of our measures of lifestyle modification.
“These results suggest that optimising sleep may lead to better lifestyle modification adherence.”
Getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep is vital to support your brain and stay healthy.
But some 7.8million Brits have been found to survive on dangerously low levels of sleep of under five hours.
Research suggests not getting enough kip can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke, and can also play havoc with your metabolism and hormones.
The latest study was presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions.
Researchers tracked sleep habits at the beginning of the programme, at six months and at 12 months.
Patients were given questionnaires, a sleep diary and seven-day readings from a wrist-worn device that recorded sleep, waking activity and rest.
A sleep health score of zero to six was calculated for each participant, with one point for each “good” measure of sleep health.
Overall, participants attended 79 per cent of group sessions in the first six months and 62 per cent in the second six months.
They met their daily caloric intake goals on 36 per cent of days in the first six months and 21 per cent in the second six months.
The total time spent in moderate to vigorous activity increased by 8.7 minutes in the first six months, but decreased by 3.7 minutes in the second six months.
The team said the drop in adherence was “expected” but they were surprised those with better sleep health scores stuck to the plan better on all three counts.