Sleep, Fat, Muscle, and Bodybuilding
Most people realize sleep is important but few realize how incredibly important it is for bodybuilders, athletes and people wanting to lose a few pounds. If you want to gain muscle, lose fat, or maximize your athletic performance you cannot be sleep deprived. We live in a world of sleep deprived people. With every passing year there are more demands on our time: school, work, family, friends, facebook, television, the internet. The average person sleeps an hour less each night than those a century ago and its not because we need less sleep. If you are serious about losing fat or bodybuilding then you must get enough sleep, lets look at why its so important that you turn off the TV and go to bed early.
If you are sleep deprived:
– You get fatter
– You burn muscle rather than fat
– Your athletic skills decrease by 9%
How is that for three great reasons to get enough sleep??? The easiest way to lose fat is to get enough sleep! Sleep is very important in regulating hormones. Turns out that when you are sleep deprived your leptin decrease and your ghrelin levels increase which causes your metabolism to slow down. It also makes you hungrier so that you eat more. Sleep deprivation is a double-bad for people trying to lose weight — it makes you burn off fewer calories AND it makes you eat more, so you get FAT!
Sleep deprivation makes you burn muscle rather than fat! If you are dieting while sleep deprived, you will burn twice as much muscle and only half as much fat. The message is clear, if you are on any sort of a diet trying to get ripped you MUST get enough sleep or you will lose muscle instead of fat! If you are eating less than your TDEE in an attempt to lose weight, you must get enough sleep or the weight you will be losing will be muscle instead of fat.
Sleep deprivation slow you down, its like being drunk all day long. Not only do your run 4.5% slower but your athletic skills decrease by 9%. Your free throw accuracy decreases by 9% and your three-point field goal accuracy decreases by 9%. The easiest way to be at your peak performance is to get enough sleep. (references 5, 6)
Thats a pretty scary list and problems with not getting enough sleep and I haven’t even bother to bore you with it does to your ability to learn or the health problems associated with not getting enough sleep