Episode 008 - Weight Loss Series pt. 3 - Sleep and Stress

We've heard "diet and exercise" ad nauseum when it comes to weight loss, but could we be missing an even larger elephant in the room? Listen on and find out if getting some extra z's is all it takes to kick start your weight loss journey!

 

Show Notes:

1:25 Associations between sleep loss and increased risk of obesity and diabetes - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394987/

 

4:16  Ghrelin: much more than a hunger hormone - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049314/#:~:text=Ghrelin%20is%20a%20multifaceted%20gut,as%20the%20%E2%80%9Chunger%20hormone%E2%80%9D.

 

5:49 Brief Communication: Sleep Curtailment in Healthy Young Men Is Associated with Decreased Leptin Levels, Elevated Ghrelin Levels, and Increased Hunger and Appetite - https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/68877632/Brief_communication_Sleep_curtailment_in20210825-7844-1t27tcr.pdf?1629903027=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DBrief_Communication_Sleep_Curtailment_in.pdf&Expires=1677079674&Signature=CNCNxM-SXbHznz~31-Lxop9uRG0UBktBGIpegtVIB95g902qgDl3ncNNcDVaCtqlRjPXphKg~4vmqgQH~DHDeKLgVqxo7dE7fubuV9LkfEXdVPnVe6FhaMr6PP7h-m1lYLlDylceQce6C98U7oprVQE3scUe3NL9XgeYxL9nGqEoHp1EOD2CsYAjFnEieL34I58ALka82Yo4oQtiWMs2QadVpT3lUnOCq7YUxsyem1RPBmSLZCTntDQfiXgfYkwDKReYvjiXzQ7i0l9uMsD-UtBcfyuXBLXnStO7Cxfq-AnaeQqpuHCoZl~XIUon6WqztK1xhvyDqyUWmCkeGi1onQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA

 

9:13 Stress and Obesity - https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102936

 

12:14
professional with over a decade of experience helping Olympic athletes desk jockeys and
seniors achieving their goals and improving their quality of life today is the final episode in our
three-part series on weight loss we'll be covering an equally important part of the equation and that

(00:24):
is stress and sleep and their effects on weight loss specifically these are essential factors that
touch every aspect of our lives so this will not be a comprehensive analysis on all of the benefits
of sleep and Stress Management but how they pertain to weight loss in particular the benefits
of these strategies we will discuss may very well carry over into other areas of Health and Wellness

(00:45):
but again we're just focusing on the weight loss benefits today of course our purpose of primary is
to distill results of scientific findings into easily approachable strategies and techniques
to improve health and wellness for everyday life deleting the charge out of the gate let's discuss
the overlooked but arguably equally important leg of the weight loss stool and that is sleep we have

(01:07):
almost a One-Stop shop of a manuscript today to provide us with some fantastic information
normally we reference different articles to support a given topic but this one manuscript
has already compiled all of the articles that we need so big kudos to the authors of this piece
that piece is associations between sleep loss and increased risk risk of obesity and diabetes

(01:31):
with authors Kristen L Knutson and Eve van Carter now this manuscript covers the gamut of
so many of the factors that tie sleep to obesity however for the sake of time I'll try to hit the
highlights so I strongly suggest you look to the show notes and follow the link to take a look and
read the manuscript yourselves there really is just a font of information here but here we go

(01:53):
for starters we need to set the scene a little bit of where we've come from to better understand
where we are in terms of sleep one of the first studies done on average sleep time was in the
1960s by the American Cancer Society that did a survey to find the average sleep time was around
8 to 8.9 hours that means in the 60s the average American was sleeping eight nine hours a night

(02:18):
in 1995 so about 35 years later the national sleep Foundation did a poll that found that
the number had dropped to seven hours so we lost an hour or two within a time span of about three
decades on average currently we are sleeping on average six hours or less So within another 20

(02:41):
years we've Fallen even farther into the hole this decrease occurs over the same time period
that the prevalence of obesity and diabetes also begins to rise which concurrently also
presides over the same time period that our food happen to change drastically from being
more of a natural mechanically processed to a lot more synthetic chemically processed food as well

(03:05):
so this could very well be a one-two punch as to why obesity and weight gain has skyrocketed over
the past three or four decades in one study that was included in the manuscript after six nights
of only four hours of sleep individuals were tested and shown to have 40 percent lower glucose
clearance which means that once it consumed that the glucose stuck around in the bloodstream longer

(03:30):
which in that form is not necessarily a good thing glucose Effectiveness was 30 percent lower
and the acute insulin response was 30 percent lower as well all of these factors contribute
to hyperglycemia which if you recall we referenced in our first episode when we spoke about diabetes
this is what can lead to a diabetic shock when you have too much sugar floating in your bloodstream

(03:55):
epidemiological data shows also a correlation between shorter sleep duration and irregular
eating habits and snacking between meals the experiment that discussed this we have to talk
about two hormones first before we get too far into the ins and outs of the experiment so we're
going to talk about ghrelin and leptin brellin is often referred to as the hunger hormone but

(04:19):
it is also linked with decreased thermogenesis meaning the body's ability to produce heat
regulating bone formation and is even involved in cancer development and metastasis there's a
link to ghrelin the show notes as well to learn a little bit more about that
and if ghrelin is the hunger hormone leptin is its antithesis or the full hormone or the hormone that

(04:43):
makes you feel full typically leptin is actually released by adipose tissue or fat tissue as a way
of telling the body we have lots of energy on reserve so back off the eating the more adipose
or the more fat is present the more leptin is present helping to curb energy consumption
think of this as so if you have too much energy in your system your body has ways to try to shut

(05:08):
off the tap so to speak so that way you don't continue to over consume on calories however if
leptin is present for an extended period of time one can develop leptin resistance just as one can
be resistant to insulin such as in diabetes if insulin is constantly released this means that
the body does not interpret the we have too much energy signal the way that it should and that in

(05:33):
turn has effectively removed the roadblock and allows for overeating so to sum it up reductively
ghrelin makes you hungry think ghrelin as in making my tummy growling and leptin is what curbs
your hunger in this experiment brief communication sleep curtailment and healthy young men is
associated with decreased leptin levels elevated ground levels and increased hunger and appetite

(05:57):
so 12 men were only allowed to sleep for four hours for two consecutive nights then 10 hours
for another two consecutive nights now as way as experiments go this one arguably doesn't hold a
lot of power however it does shed some light on some interesting correlations that definitely
warrant some follow-up so having only 12 subjects means that there's not the more subjects you can

(06:22):
have in a experiment or we call that the N or the number of participants the greater that number the
less likely there was for some fluke or outlier to be involved so the numbers are very relatively low
additionally they only used men not women one would expect to see the similar results but we
can't say for sure because no women were used so this is a good launch pad as sort of almost

(06:48):
a crystal ball to potentially see correlations however a study that of Greater strength would
likely need to be done to prove concrete evidence that these are facts however as I mentioned
all 12 participants were allowed to seep for only four hours for two nights in a row and then we're

(07:08):
allowed to sleep for 10 hours the following two nights as if you could argue that oh they had to
stay up late during the week for work and then they got to sleeping on the weekend so to speak
during the short sleep nights the ratio of ghrelin to leptin so thinking hunger versus satiety
was double so that means there was double the amount of ghrelin per leptin so the power of I'm

(07:36):
hungry was much greater than the power of I'm full stop eating so that ratio was double that
on the four hour deprived sleep compared to that of the 10 hour sleep so simply by reducing sleep
they had double the ratio meaning they had much stronger hunger urges and if people left their

(08:00):
own devices would likely fulfill them additionally participants a here we go participants feelings
of hunger correlated with the changes in the hormones this is a compelling argument that yes if
since we're adults and we like to kind of do things for our own whether they are good or
bad sometimes if left to ones and devices we would pursue food intake because the increase

(08:21):
of groin and its effects would be felt more and as leptin would be lowered it would be a less
effective Governor to calm down so sometimes when people say oh I just can't help myself
they're not kidding they are literally basically you have these hormones acting as imagine drugs
when you know someone's on a hill an illicit drug doing crazy things that they that no reasonable

(08:44):
human being would well if these hormones become so powerful to certain levels it's not just a matter
of willpower at that point you're basically being hijacked by drugs that your body is producing
because they are not in appropriate levels so that is the the effects of sleep or I should say lack
of sleep on ghrelin elected left in your body's ability to manage its own appetite so now let's

(09:10):
talk about stress and obesity it has been proven time and again that stress releases cortisol which
leads to increased eating cortisol is our hormone that plays a huge role in the sympathetic fight or
flight mechanism we have two Pathways sympathetic and parasympathetic not can I sympathize with you

(09:30):
but it is the name such that when this system is engaged this is what is our activator our
arousal our go switch if you will this is what really turns the body on and ramps it up
are parasympathetic is the calm down and perform maintenance route so the more that the sympathetic

(09:51):
pathway is stimulated the more you're going to ratchet up and be awake and be ready for action
increased heart rate increase blood pressure and the more the parasympathetic is stimulated
the more you're going to calm down relax maintenance sleep what have you so corsol is the
hormone that plays a huge role in the sympathetic fight-or-flight mechanism and since that pathway

(10:13):
is a huge energy drain it would make sense that we would want to eat more calories to offset the
potentially incurred increased energy expenditure as I just allowed in the fight-or-flight scenario
your body needs to have all things operating at maximum efficiency which means more things
are running more things need energy so it's expected that when cortisol is released your

(10:39):
heart's beating faster your blood vessels are dilating your muscles are likely working more
this is the classic scenario of you see a tiger your body freaks out you need to start running
like crazy your body wants to make sure that your muscles are primed getting everything they need so
that you can run for your life so it's expected that if you're going to be running hard you're
going to be using a lot of energy so this hormone prepares you for that impending physical demand

(11:07):
you have to remember primitive bodies we didn't have a lot of Psychosocial stressors we had a lot
of physical stressors so this hormone released by stress has a lot of physical effects on the body
however mental stress does not burn physically the same amount of energy as running from a tiger does

(11:28):
so our bodies are trying to compensate for the energy burn that was not actually burn
so when you are say being yelled at by your boss your body is reacting as if a tiger is there and
preparing you to go run but you're just sitting in your chair and then your boss leaves but you

(11:49):
never had to go run from the Tiger so now he had all this cortisol released it is now preparing
your body to make up for that energy deficit of having run from a tiger but it didn't exist so
now you are hungry when you don't need to eat anything because no energy was actually burned
so now we have another reasoning as to why stress can influence appetite as well it's also known to

(12:15):
be a disrupter of sleep for which we discussed is another factor for weight gain trust is also
known to be a disrupter of sleep which we just discussed if you're not getting good sleep that
can also be another factor for weight gain so many ways these two areas are the same area poor sleep
leads to stress stress leads to poor sleep with the feedback loops such as this it's sometimes

(12:40):
difficult to break the cycle once entrenched fortunately with these areas there are many
simple actionable steps to begin to right the ship so to speak to help set oneself up for success
since we want to keep these episodes on the shorter side I'll wet your pad a little bit
by discussing these Solutions and then we can elaborate them in future episodes but I want

(13:02):
to ensure that you've walked away from today with not just a call to action to change your lifestyle
but how to change your lifestyle some of these May apply to you some may not you may have tried
some of these and that's okay however these are all things that have strong physiological
backing and these are again places to start we're trying to look for actionable simple

(13:24):
steps that can have large impacts at just about the vast majority of our audience can approach
so number one is meditate meditation does not need to take an extended period of time 10 minutes a
day has been shown to be extremely effective that's it and whenever right when you wake up

(13:45):
before bed maybe a bathroom break at work lunch break you figure it out you do not need to be good
at meditating either meditation takes practice do a Google search and see what different types
of techniques are out there kind of like food different people like different things so I'm
not here to tell you that there is one bulletproof method that's been shown to work but you need to

(14:10):
invest some time in yourself to research and try the different methods and see which one fits your
style your approach your life the best this has been shown to be again an effective effective
way at reducing stress which is one part of that slate sleep stress cycle that we need to break
now for the Sleep side of things get your morning sun if you have difficulty going to bed or waking

(14:34):
up on time then your circadian rhythm is likely off and you can simply readjust that by viewing
sunlight first thing in the morning for at least 10 minutes must also go outside to do this viewing
light when it enters the eye the amount of Light released from the Sun is greater than any of our

(14:55):
normal indoor bulbs so the sunlight is absolutely imperative but when light is viewed first thing
that is what effectively rewinds the clock and sets your morning and therefore sets your waking
time so if you're waking up late and the sun's been up for an hour or two then you're going
to go to bed late which is going to cause you to get up late and so the cycle will continue so if

(15:16):
you can force yourself out of bed the moment the sun is rising which you can figure out when that
is you can just open a window and stick your head out you can leave your building go for a walk walk
your dog whatever but you need to be able to get the direct light into it I don't stare directly at
the sun that's obviously going to hurt your eyes but you need to be outside and allow the light

(15:37):
bouncing off the surfaces to be able to enter the eye Windows have UV block and so they will take
a big big edge off of light and that's why simply looking at your window is not nearly as effective
so do your best to get outside whether it's a head out the window or you're able to Rouse yourself
from bed and physically leave your building strongly suggest getting light first thing

(16:00):
in the morning no artificial lights at night we've heard this before however you can also
if you need to resort to Red Light if necessary white light tricks the brain into thinking that
the sun is still up however when the sun sets it has that nice red Hue to it that nice red

(16:20):
sunset and our bodies respond to that so if you use a computer or a phone make sure or do some
digging and see if it has a night mode I know a lot of phones typically do simply turning down
the brightness of your phone helps but if you can get it to change the Hue that is ideal I

(16:41):
know on PCS there's a program called flux it's F dot Lux and a link to that in the show notes
it actually knows what time zone you're in and it will begin to change the Hue of your monitor as
the Sun is setting so it actually mimics the same color as the sun as it actually is outside at the

(17:02):
exact same time and when the sun has set it is a very dark Hue now it does also make it slightly
harder to see which is also kind of the point because that's sort of your signal to basically
say hey the sun is down you should probably stop being on your giant monitor right now and getting
ready for bed so I strongly recommend looking to that it's free so it's definitely worth a shot

(17:27):
and I've had some pretty good success with that so another one this is a little interesting depending
on your schedule may require some timing involved but ideally no food two hours before bed and we
mean done eating two hours before bed so if you get into bed at nine o'clock you need
to be putting your fork or your spoon down from your last bite at seven not sitting down to eat

(17:52):
at seven o'clock and then noshing for another 45 minutes to an hour if you're still putting food
in your body that still counts digesting your food is work it's hard work and trying to sleep
and work at the same time is not something the body is good at so you're going to continue to
slightly stay awake because your body's having to engage in energetically demanding work digesting

(18:18):
your food it's not just making the acid and the chemicals and the enzymes to break your food
down but it's also mechanical work your insides actually contract and relax and are working almost
like a workout but for your insides so working and sleeping at the same time doesn't work out so well
finally tracking your sleep where possible you may have an underlying issue that you're completely

(18:41):
unaware of that's affecting your ability to sleep well so a simple device tracker may be the thing
to let you know if you sleep alone or if your partner's a sound sleeper and even if you snore
they couldn't tell you because they just sleep so deep the options are many I know there is one app
in particular I'll see if I can include that in the show notes for at least Android that's

(19:01):
totally free that uses your phone as a sleep tracker that uses the gyro in the phone to
detect move motions in the bed which helps predict what phase of sleep that you're in and then it
also will record whenever it hears a sound if you snore so you can refer back to the data and see

(19:23):
did you have trouble breathing were you snoring did you have children who came running into your
room that kept you up at night like yours truly so all of that is captured and it'll help you
assess the not only duration but the efficiency of your sleep as well which could be crucial
so these little things are a little in action but can have enormous impacts that can set you

(19:44):
on a correct course especially when you implement them one after the other start with these and keep
on listening so we can continue to find ways to help improve our lives please reach out with your
health related questions at info primedy.org and remember strength can come in many forms
from within and without and so because life is short be strong to be useful take care everyone