If you want to lose weight, you should pay close attention to your diet and exercise. Sleep also plays a role, experts say. There is a link between poor sleep and body weight. But do you also gain weight after you have had a bad night’s sleep? And do you lose weight more easily if you are a good sleeper? Two experts explain what’s going on.
By Sanne WoltersA few years ago, researchers at the LUMC discovered a link between sleep quality and body fat. Poor or short sleep is associated with fattening of the body – proof of the relationship between sleep and gain, you might say.
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“But it is not so black and white. There is a connection, but we cannot draw conclusions about cause and effect. Sleep and nutrition are incredibly complex,” says one of the researchers, Raymond Noordam of the LUMC Internal Medicine department. Medicine.
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From a biological point of view, there are explanations for gaining weight because of bad nights, says Noordam. “For an experiment, students were woken up after a short night; the hunger hormone ghrelin was present to a greater extent. As a result, you eat more.”
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The effect of jet lag or night work on eating behavior was also investigated. Noordam: “People with jet lag, for example, are more likely to eat emotionally. You don’t really feel like a healthy salad, but you do want that fatty bite.”
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