Are you losing weight or losing your mind…
What is your ‘weight’ anyway?
Your weight is the sum total of YOU and it can VARY every day and at different times of the day.
Did you know that you weigh less in the morning than the evening?
So quit weighing yourself morning and evening for starters!
During the day you eat, drink and do all sorts of activities and your body is actively digesting food and doing a load of other important tasks and as a result quite a bit of ‘weight’ is actually gained.
And food is taken on board and passes through us – and depending on what and how much you eat (and get rid of the other end) will affect your ‘daily’ weight.
And depending what you eat and drink the level of water ‘retained’ will vary – the healthier your choices the less water will be retained!
Then during the night your body is focused on ‘repair’ (this is why we sleep) and loads of energy is burned doing this, ie: calories!
Fit Day website reports that the average person burns about 77 calories per hour so 8 hours of good quality sleep equals 600 calories burned (while quietly sleeping!)
Calories burned during sleep are used to sustain vital functions in the body – monitoring and maintaining your internal temperature, repairing cells and pumping blood are some of the night time activities that your body naturally does.
And your brain is massively active while you are in deep sleep which equals many calories being burned!
So when you are in ‘deep’ sleep you are actually LOSING weight!
However if you eat a large meal and/or drink alcohol just before bed or even a few hours before and in particular if this meal includes fatty and spicy foods, you may be up all night with heartburn and excess energy (ie: light or very little sleep).
And you burn way more calories when you are in a ‘deep’ sleep than when you are or tossing and turning.
And if you are starving yourself on a restriction diet your sleep will be poor as you have no fuel to burn for ‘repairing’ and sustain vital functions in the body and your brain function will be low.
And as a result you will wake up tired and emotional and spend the day in a stressed state and very few calories will get burnt.
In fact when you are in a ‘state of stress’ (even mild) your brain is 100% focused on that and not on digestion! (survive before thrive always).
And in this state large amounts of water are retained!
And this equals little weight loss and YOU weigh more!
And the less weight you lose, the more stressed you get and the worse you sleep…and so on (and that’s a never ending loop!)
So good quality sleep and managing your stress levels are crucial if you want to ‘lose weight’ and maintain it longterm.
So focus on getting these 2 things right BEFORE diet and exercise!
The best nutrition and exercise will give you ZERO results of you are stressed, tired and emotional during the day and sleeping badly at night.
And managing your stress levels and getting good quality sleep are much easier than you might think…
…and they BOTH start with managing the way you breathe!
To your success,
Kieran 🙂
P.S. Looking for some help achieving your goals and making changes in your life?
Then set up a 10 minute strategy call and let me help you put a plan in place.
