Sleep Less, Eat More?

Ant writes "A study, published Monday, found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it's time to find if more sleep will fight obesity. Monday's study from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk covered 1,000 people and found that total sleep time decreased as body mass index -- a measure of weight based on height -- increased. Men slept an average of 27 minutes less than women and overweight and obese patients slept less than patients with normal weights, it said. In general the fatter subjects slept about 1.8 hours a week less than those with normal weights."

Comments

Misleading headline

[Space cowboy]

Even the scientists aren't claiming this:

"We caution that this study does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restricted sleep and obesity (but) investigations demonstrating success in weight loss via extensions of sleep would help greatly to establish such a relationship."

Noting that states A and B appear to have a mutual relationship does not mean that A implies B, it could just as easily mean that B implies A, or even that the statistics are skewed by something else...

If it turns out that fat people have more trouble sleeping than thin ones, then they would sleep less, but trying to force them to sleep more (drugs perhaps) would not necessarily decrease their weight...

Simon

Listen to your body to stay healthy

[Skyshadow]

I'm sure there are other factors in this (maybe the people sleep less because they're busy, and therefore eat a lot of fast food, etc). However, I've become convinced that staying slim and otherwise in good health/shape is largely a result of listening to what our bodies tell us.

You know, how it feels good after you exercise a bit? Or how it hurts to overeat? How you're tired when you don't sleep enough?

I'm doing the South Beach diet right now, and really it's just about teaching yourself to eat right again (it's not a low-carb diet like a lot of people think it is). The big thing of it for me is that this is all stuff I knew -- eat three meals a day, don't pig out, sugar and processed flour are bad for you, etc -- but I'd just forgotten.

Misplaced Datapoint

[sameerdesai]

I must be misplaced datapoint. I am fat and I like to sleep whole day. yummm sleep!!!

Oooh, cause and effect

[bigberk]

The article mentions, correctly, that this does imply any cause-effect relationship. As a bit of a health nut, here are some of the possibilities I have thought of regarding the relationsip between sleep and being overweight/unhealthy:

• People with irregular daily routines might not sleep as much as they need to, and similarly, may skip meals or snack excessively which is known to lead to unhealthy weights
• Stressful lifestyles both impact sleep cycles, and one's diet and exercise routine (stress leading to unhealthiness)
• People who are overweight may have trouble sleeping due to breathing difficulties, or other discomforts arising from a general lack of good health
• People who are well disciplined may be better at adhering to exercise and healthy eating routines, and similarly, sticking to proper sleeping patterns and allocating enough hours for a good night's sleep.

what the study didn't bother to check...

[dAzED1]

people with more free time are able to do a number of things that others can't do; exercise, spend more time cooking healthy dinners, and above all - sleep. On the other hand, those with less free time (due to having less income, higher stress, more problems to deal with, etc) have less time for exercise, cooking healthy dinners, and above all - sleep.

Good thing I forced my middle-classed self to cook healthy organic dinners, exercise, and etc - despite the free time. Pays off, really.

Re:OK People, LISTEN UP:

[Skyshadow]

There is no magic bullet, but there are a lot of little things you can do.

Eat three meals a day to prevent hunger causing you to binge at one. Drink more water to maintain your metabolism. Have planned snacks during the day to keep your blood sugar up (reduces cravings and, again, maintains your metabolism). Switch to reduced-fat versions of high-fat items. Drink diet soda to cut calories. Limit caffine (horror!). Eat whole grains instead of white flour-based bread items. Cook for yourself more so you know what goes into things and you have control over their healthfulness.

Like I mentioned earlier in the threat, I'm doing South Beach right now (Wedding-Honeymoon-Holidays == Tubby Skyshadow). It's not a low-carb diet like people seem to think -- really just a formalized plan that pushes you back towards the way you know you ought to be eating, anyhow. I'd encourage people who have weight issues to check it out (you can learn how free on the web, you don't have to buy the book, so don't think I'm just shilling here).

Its indicative of a lifestyle...

[sailor420]

The two are probably correlated because they indicate a certain type of lifestyle. If you are so busy that you dont have enough time to get a full night's sleep, you probably also don't have time to prepare healthy meals or exercise properly. They are probably eating out more, snacking more, and excercising less. Put them together, and yeah, the people that get less sleep are probably going to be fatter.

Re:No kidding

[Abcd1234]

Beer is full of fat and carbs

Fat?!? Dude, you really need to rethink your choice of beer if you're getting a significant portion of your beer calories from fat. The calories in beer come from two things: sugars extracted from the mash, and the alcohol itself (which, has a very high caloric density, second only to fat).

Re:The obvious?

[Ying Hu]

The parent should not be modded all the way to +5 Interesting. Humorous, maybe. The real truth, at least for MY body, is that less sleep, that is, less efficient body functioning, means that my body has to make up the energy somewhere else. Where? With food. If I have plenty of sleep, less food is needed; if I'm running on sleep deficit, I get very hungry; if I'm skipping both food and sleep (very bad, I try to avoid it), I have often gotten sick. I don't know if this has been checked in a wide-scale study with many types of people, but they do know there's less growth hormone released, less efficient memory processing, and other decreases in healing speed and body functioning with too little sleep. And caffeine is like punching up the adreneline - it works for awhile, but ultimately you end up being more tired.

For some, both derive from a root cause

[Nygard]

People who don't have time to get enough sleep probably don't have time to exercise, either.