Sleep is vital to weight loss. By getting the recommended amount of rest each night, you regulate your hormones, boost your mood, and enhance your self-esteem. The knock-on effects of these traits are huge as they do everything from eliminating stress and encouraging you to hit the gym to stop you from overeating.
Sadly, seven to nine hours every night is a lot to ask of some people. If you fall into this category, it’s tempting to assume that you’re destined never to lose weight again. How can you when you can’t get to bed before midnight?
Thankfully, although sleep is critical to weight loss, it’s not the only factor that impacts your ability to lose a few pounds. By making a selection of small tweaks to your lifestyle, you can solve the aftereffects of a poor night’s rest.
Here are four essentials if you struggle to lose weight and you’re not a great sleeper.
Drink Coffee Pre-Workout
Drinking coffee is part of your morning routine because you need a dose of caffeine to perk you up and blast the sleep out of your eyes. However, what most people don’t realize is the impacts of caffeine on the body pre-exercise.
According to a Spanish study quoted in health.com, athletes who consumed caffeine before working out burned an average of 15% more calories. That’s a lot of kcal. The reason for this is that the stimulant provides extra stamina and makes completing activities easier. As a result, you can bypass your insomnia and burn off as many as forty-five more calories during a twenty-five-minute session.
Drinking coffee does come with caveats, especially if you work out late at night. Remember that it’s still a stimulant and taking on caffeine will only mess with your sleep patterns further. But, if you prefer to exercise in the morning or afternoon, this is an excellent tactic.
And Recover Faster
It’s a simple equation, yet exercising more often and maintaining a high level of intensity will lead to weight loss. The problem stems from a variety of issues, including a lack of motivation. Working out is never appealing when your muscles are aching and feel as if they’re about to drop off.
The DOMS phenomenon is the perfect excuse to sit back and relax as you don’t want to cause further damage to your body. However, it is possible to recover quicker, according to steelsupplements.com. Taking the right supplements almost always results in reduced soreness and higher recovery times, making extra sessions more likely. Don’t worry because you don’t need to choke down dry powder that tastes like cleaning products – most supplements make delicious smoothies.
The key is to listen to your body. The temptation to push will be hard to ignore when you understand that a key element of losing weight isn’t synonymous with your lifestyle. Please, give it a go by all means, but never neglect your body’s messages when you go the extra mile.
Work Out At A Low Intensity
All the studies point to high-intensity exercises being the best vehicle for weight loss, so the idea of toning it down sounds counterproductive. While HiiT sessions are helpful on the face of it, when you delve deeper, you recognize that they aren’t flawless.
For one thing, exercising at a high intensity boosts the body’s cortisol levels, the hormone that leads to stress. If you can’t sleep and remove the chemical from your body, you’ll only do more harm than good. Also, low-intensity workouts are often sleep-inducive.
This is because walking or jogging at a slow pace isn’t extreme and feels good. Once you start to enjoy exercising, you’ll do it for longer, leading your body to tire. Mayoclinic.org will show you how to judge the intensity of your session.
Eat Every Couple Of Hours
A lack of sleep forces you to overeat. You’re tired and stressed out, so your ability to regulate your appetite is low. Plus, you don’t have the guilt mechanism that you get when you’re full of energy and attempting to stick to a routine.
At the same time, you shouldn’t undereat since the lack of energy will lead you to increase your portions at mealtimes. The perfect balance is to eat or snack every two to four hours. By doing this, you’ll suppress your hunger without taking on a considerable number of calories.
Try and stick to the timings as snacking heavily makes it hard to control your calorie intake.
Is your quality of sleep low? How do you keep the weight off without a proper night’s rest?