Stressed Out, Hungry, and Underslept

Day in and day out, I hear health and fitness professionals talk about calorie deficits. Some seem to believe that the only thing that matters in weight management is calorie consumption and energy expenditure. In truth, it’s deeper than that. If anyone tells you otherwise, they’re either lying or misinformed. I said what I said. Sleep, hormones, biological sex, genetics, and other factors play a role in weight management as well. 

Let’s focus on the connection between hormones and sleep and how that impacts weight management.

Greedy Ghrelin

One of the hormones that affect weight management is ghrelin, which is also known as the hunger hormone. One of its many functions is to signal to you that it’s time to eat. A lack of sleep has been shown to increase your ghrelin levels. This, in turn, increases hunger, which is not exactly helpful for weight loss.

Skimming on your sleep makes your body produce more ghrelin. Yep. Let me repeat that. Skimming on sleep can cause you to feel more hungry. This greedy ghrelin hormone (and a reduction in leptin, but more on that later) makes you think you’re hungrier when you’re really not, thus sabotaging your calorie deficit and your weight management goals.

Choosing to stay up for that extra hour to show you’re a badass or that #sleepisfortheweak may be adding to your waistline.

Lazy Ass Leptin

And then there’s leptin. Leptin is basically ghrelin’s cousin. Leptin tells your body to stop eating because you are satisfied (no longer hungry, which is distinct from feeling full). Sleep deprivation also causes a reduction in your body’s production of leptin. 

So while your hunger hormone, ghrelin, increases, the hormone that tells you you’re full decreases. It’s a recipe for disaster. Who knew that missing a few hours of sleep per night could wreak such havoc on your weight loss goals!? 

Crazy Cortisol

On top of making you feel hungrier than you actually are, a lack of sleep increases your levels of the stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that plays a key role in your body's response to stress. It is secreted by the adrenal glands in response to stress or fear as part of your body's fight or flight response. So what does this have to do with sleep?

Poor quality sleep, lack of sufficient sleep, and inconsistent sleep schedules can all increase cortisol production. Elevated cortisol levels are associated with weight gain because it has a reputation for stimulating your appetite and encouraging your body to store fat more aggressively. And that extra fat tends to be stored around your organs (known as visceral fat).

Insensitive Insulin

And then there’s insulin. When you don’t prioritize sleep, this can lead to dysregulated and impaired metabolism of your food in addition to a reduced insulin sensitivity. Insulin regulates the levels of sugar in your blood.

Sleep deprivation may cause the pancreas to produce too much insulin. If the body doesn’t properly respond to insulin, it can develop insulin resistance, which leads to high levels of sugar in the blood. This is also known as type 2 diabetes.

Yikes, now what?

On your journey towards better health, when you have the chance to choose an extra few hours of sleep over other activities, think about how that choice affects your weight management goals and your health in general. Given the multiple hormones at play, is it worth it? Probably not. Plus, sleep actually feels good and does your body good. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about prioritizing sleep.