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Does
Sleeping Late Make You Gain Weight?
There's
been a bit of buzz lately about the effects of sleeping late on
your ability to lose weight. A couple of studies in 2011 showed
that people who sleep late tend to have trouble losing that extra
weight and may even gain weight over time. But like every study
and every story about weight gain, it's important to look at the
details and think carefully about the cause and effect. Sleeping
late has absolutely no effect on your weight gain or loss. However,
when you sleep late, you stay up late, and then you snack late
at night.
When
you eat late at night, you are more likely to gain weight and
it'll be harder for you to lose that extra weight. It turns
out that the real culprit to weight gain in people who sleep
late are those late night snacks. Humans can lose weight more
easily and tend to gain less weight if they eat at a reasonable
dinner time and then do not snack in the evenings. For a society
that is used to watching TV after dinner and having a snack
or a dessert while we do it, that present a problem.
Healthy
Habits
So
it's not that sleeping late will make you gain weight, but that
your sleeping habits may tell the story of your eating habits.
And if you have unhealthy eating habits, you will gain weight.
Eating snacks late at night is one way to gain weight, and it's
hard to avoid eating snacks at night when you don't wake up
until late in the morning.
What
are healthy eating habits that will not cause you to gain weight?
And will eating on a "heathy" schedule help you to
lose weight? If the studies are correct, you may find that eating
on a relatively normal schedule will help you to avoid extra
weight gain. And if you've been eating in an unhealthy way and
you switch to eating more healthily, you'll probably lose some
weight. Those normal times are breakfast around 9am, lunch at
1pm, and dinner at 7pm. By 8:30pm, you should be done eating
for the day.
But
it's not just about when you eat and when you sleep. You've
got to sleep well and for enough hours so that you stay healthy.
And you've got to eat a healthy diet if you want to keep your
body healthy.
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