Ep. 47 Weekend Catch-up Sleep and Teen's Eating Habits

As a mother, I know how tempting it is to let your teenager catch up on sleep over the weekend, but I've learned through research that this habit may be influencing their eating behaviors in ways we never expected.

Tune in to learn more about the  complex relationship between poor sleep, hormonal changes, and cravings that challenge the common notion of 'catching up' on sleep.

Associations ofWeekday and Weekend Sleep with Children’s Reported Eating in the Absence of Hunger. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1658; doi:10.3390/nu11071658

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

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✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
If you are a mom and want tohelp your child who is
struggling to lose weight, youare in the right place.
If you are looking for healthylifestyle tips, dr Gorgery is
here to help you understand thescience around safe weight loss
in teens and children, becausewhat works for adult weight loss
is not always the best forchildren.

(00:29):
This podcast is for educationalpurposes only.
Dr Gorgory does not providemedical, psychological or
nutrition therapy advice.
You should not use thisinformation to diagnose or treat
any health problems withoutconsulting your own medical
practitioner and now your host,dr Jenny Gorgory.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Hello, welcome, welcome to another episode of
the Lifestyle and Weight Lossfor Teens podcast.
This is Dr Jenny Gorgory andtoday I will be talking again
about sleep and I'm going toapproach this from a different
angle.
And the reason I decided to dothis podcast is because a family

(01:12):
recently and I was talking tothem and I was explaining the
different reasons by which sleepis important for all teenagers
when they're trying to get to ahealthy weight, and I've talked
about this before.
You can go back and listen toepisode four, where I talk about
why is sleep important and howteenagers that can sleep more

(01:35):
can get to a healthier weight ina better way, and also on
episode 21, where I talked aboutthe relationship between not
sleeping very well and havingcravings and what is the
scientific evidence for that.
So you can go tolifestyleforteenscom forward
slash four orlifestyleforteenscom forward

(01:57):
slash 21 to listen to episodefour and 21.
So on this episode I will putmore emphasis on the
relationship between poor sleepand eating at the absence of
hunger.
So basically, what's therelationship between poor sleep

(02:17):
and eating out of boredom,eating when you're not really
hungry?
So we know that there is arelationship between poor sleep
and cravings and poor sleep andhormonal changes.
And, as I said, there was afamily recently and there was

(02:37):
this dispute again between momand the teenager, where the
teenager said that, yes, I don'tsleep at night very early.
However, I sleep more duringthe weekend and, of course,
there is no doubt about that.
This is a common theme I seeabout on the teenagers and they

(03:00):
may think that, oh, I catch up,I sleep more on the weekends and
families.
I'm sure you know that this isa common pattern and the reason
and the question is this thesame Like if you're sleeping six
hours in one night and thenyou're sleeping 12 hours over

(03:21):
the weekend, does that stillcount?
Because your overall sleep canbe back to the recommended
amount.
And, remember, we wantteenagers to sleep at least 8 to
10 hours per day and data fromCDC shows that a majority of
teenagers do not get therecommended sleep and, of course

(03:44):
, there can be differentparameters that can be affected
from poor sleep.
But on this episode, I'm goingto focus what's the relationship
between not sleeping enoughduring the weekday with eating
without hunger, and there was anexcellent study which was done
recently, in 2019.
It was published in the Journalof Nutrients, the actual title

(04:06):
of the manuscript isAssociations of Weekday and
Weekend Sleep with Children'sReported Eating in the Absence
of Hunger.
So it was done at NIH.
Briefly, what the researchersdid is they asked teenagers to
wear like a smart watch thatwould give them information on

(04:27):
their sleep.
So they would look at how manyhours the teenagers slept during
the weekday and then theylooked at how many hours the
teenagers slept during theweekend, and they also gave them
a questionnaire, which is avalidated questionnaire, to ask
questions about how are they,whether they are eating at the

(04:48):
absence of hunger, and so, forexample, questions like that
would be tell me, how often doyou keep eating because others
are still eating?
How often do you keep eatingbecause you're feeling bored, or
how often do you keep eatingbecause you're feeling anxious
or nervous?
So these questions kind of giveyou a score on like how likely

(05:11):
are you to eat when you're notreally hungry but you're eating
for all those other reasons?
And if you are eating for allthese other reasons, then you're
more likely to gain weight andbe in an unhealthy weight.
So what they found was that,even though there was no
relationship between the averagetotal sleep and their eating

(05:33):
without hunger score, meaningthat, yes, overall, their sleep
was not the overall sleepthroughout the week was not
associated with this unhealthybehavior.
But then if they lookedindividually at each night and
then the catch-up sleep, whichis the extra sleep they get
during the weekend, they foundthat the kids that slept less

(05:58):
during the weekdays and also thesleep, the extra sleep, the
catch-up sleep that they hadduring the weekends, that was
more associated with thisbehavior of eating without
hunger.
So I think this is a veryimportant message and that's my
take-home message to you alltoday is, if you are not getting

(06:21):
enough sleep, consider addinglike, even if it is half an hour
or an hour, or, and doing allthose things we've talked before
about how to get better sleep,because that can potentially
improve this behavior.
Again, this is not a study thatshowed that, but it does give
you a hint that there is anassociation which makes you

(06:44):
think that if you could improvethat, then that could
potentially improve your thisbehavior to you.
So if you find yourself eatingwithout hunger or eating out of
boredom or eating out of beinganxious, ask yourself if this
could be related to you notgetting the recommended sleep.

(07:04):
So that's all I had for youtoday.
Again, if you haven't signed upfor my newsletter, you can go
to lifestyleforteenscom forwardslash newsletter and I will send
you weekly emails with tips andupdates as I produce this
content.
Take care of your own.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I
invite you to come check out theLyft program.
It's Dr Gorgeri's 12-weekcoaching program for teens and
their moms, where we take allthis information, we apply it to
your daily life and we worktogether so your teenager learns
how to create a healthylifestyle so they can feel
happier, more confident, lessstressed and love their body

(07:43):
again.
Visit the website atlifestyleforteenscom and click
on the work with me and freeresources to learn more about
this program and get free helpto start this journey right away
.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llcatch you in the next episode of
Lifestyle and Weight Loss forTeens.