I want to be an Asterisk*

Everyday I receive a fax called the Business Digest.  There are usually interesting management articles, headlines regarding mergers, and the Quote of the Day which I enjoy.  Today there was a section called Health and Fitness so of course I read it.  Under the few health tidbits section was a bulleted point that caught my attention:

Lack of sleep releases hormonies that stimulate your appetite.  Oversleeping means you burn less energy in a day.

Those two small statements didn’t surprise me.  I have always preached the key to successful weightloss is sleep.  Not because of any extensive research, mostly from paying attention to my hunger signals. 

I remember one day I was starving all day.  It seemed like all I wanted to do was snack all day.  Although I didn’t give in to the snack attack, I continued to feel hungry, even though I had eaten what should have been satisfying meals.  Like most of us who diet, we get into a routine as to what we eat, usually eating the same things at certain times.  For example, I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast because I know it is filling and doesn’t require me to have a snack to make it until lunch.

On this day, however, I had my oatmeal for breakfast, was hungry and hour later, ate a snack, had my usual 6 or 7 point lunch and was hungry an hour later.  Analyzing what was different, I remembered that I hadn’t slept well the night before.  How is that for research?

After reading the Business Digest article, I decided to do a little more research on sleep and weightloss.  I found the following articles online.

Sleep Away the Pounds - By Cherie Calbom
It’s not all in your head - Unhealthy eating and weight gain
How Sleep affects your weight
Leptin and Ghrelin:  Their Role as Appetite Hormones

If you need help sleeping, you may want to read the 4th article as it is a bit more scientific but it was still very informative.

Sweet Dreams!