Sleep, mood improves after substantial weight loss

Obese adults who lose at least 5 percent of their body weight report that they sleep better and longer after six months of weight loss, according to a new study. The results were presented Tuesday at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago.

"This study confirms several studies reporting that weight loss is associated with increased sleep duration," said the study's lead investigator, Nasreen Alfaris, MD, MPH, a fellow in the Department of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

In addition, the study found that weight loss at 6 months improved sleep quality, as well as mood, regardless of how the individuals lost the weight.

The 390 study subjects participated in the Practice-Based Opportunities for Weight Reduction at the University of Pennsylvania (POWER-UP) trial. This 2-year study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, compared three behavioral interventions for weight loss in obese adults treated in primary care practices.

Subjects (311 women and 79 men) were randomly assigned to one of three programs that provided varying amounts of support to achieve the same diet and exercise goals. The groups were: (1) usual care, in which subjects received printed educational materials during quarterly visits with their primary care provider; (2) brief lifestyle counseling, which included quarterly visits with their primary care provider, combined with brief meetings with lifestyle coaches; or (3) enhanced brief lifestyle counseling, with meal replacements or weight loss medications added to the second intervention.

Can you lose weight while sleeping? Proper sleep can help you avoid excess weight gain and, over time, lose weight. But if you're looking to drop 10 pounds by the end of the month, sleep isn't your answer.

You might think that the more hours you're awake, the more calories you're burning, so you should be losing more weight. But you'd be wrong.

In fact, people who don't sleep enough at night risk gaining extra pounds, not losing them, according to John M. Jakicic, director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

"I think poor sleep is a contributing factor to weight gain," says Jakicic. "When you have poor sleep or lack of sleep, you're setting a whole cascade of events in motion hormonally that could set you up for weight gain."

Less sleep = Less energy

Hormones that regulate growth and appetite are part of the equation, according to Jakicic, but equally culpable is sleep sabotage. He believes that the more you're awake, the greater the chance you'll have an extra snack or two (or three or four).

A 2013 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences supports that theory. It found that people who don't get enough sleep are more likely to be hungry because the body needs more energy to stay awake. Unfortunately, sleepy eaters tend to consume more than enough to compensate, which leads to weight gain.