Anyone else with a night waker had trouble losing weight?

I've been reading up on sleep deprivation cause it's been pretty constant in my world the past 16 months and apparently one of the side effects can be inability to lose weight (or a great deal of difficulty at least). It has something to do with neurotransmitters and hormones that are released when sleeping for appropriate periods of time.

Just wondering what people think of this. Does it sound plausible? Has anyone else felt that their sleep deprivation was sabotaging their weight loss efforts? Or should I just suck it up and try harder? LOL!

Absolutely! This is 100% correct, you need your sleep :)

I studied this briefly at uni as part of a sleep unit in psychology and i believe it is true, though i may have been influenced by my DD waking every 40 mins during this particular part of the course so it had a lot of relevance...

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my DD waking every 40 mins

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:o

Oh wow, that's full on :hug: The most frequent we get here is 1.5 to 2 hourly but he's up for hours at each wake up sometimes too.

So is there any way I can counteract this? Aside from him sleeping through which I don't seem to be able to influence.

yes sleep is very important for weight loss you should try to get about 8 hours sleep that is when you actually lose the weight i beleive plus it gives your body good recovery for the next day

Does it have to be 8 hours straight or can it be little chunks that add up to a total of 8 hours? Ta.

Definitely true. :hug:

I did Exercise science at uni for a year before i changed degrees and we looked at this.

-Lack of sleep causes the release of more cortisol than the body needs (stress hormone) and then makes you more hungry.
-It changes your Basal metabolic rate (number of calories burnt while resting)
-It makes it harder to metabolise carbohydrates and causes high blood levels of glucose, which leads to higher insulin levels and greater body-fat storage.

There are other things to but I just cant remember.

:hug: I think if you are following a healthy diet and exercising there is not a lot more that you can do if you arent getting enough sleep. Lets just hope DS learns to love sleep! :hug:

I think it is 8 solid hours sorry!

Do you co-sleep? Poor thing with the long waking hours! DD was great at going back to sleep again quite quickly once i had given her some (.)(.)

I would just wait it out, they aren't like this forever and you will eventually get some more sleep. And then you have another one, and it all starts again... :p

i beleive it is 8 hours solid just get as much sleep as you can thats all it will certinaly help you to lose the weight

Thanks everyone. Looks like I'm doomed til he starts sleeping through :(

Bella - that is interesting. I find it hard to stick to sensible eating, get starving even though only feeding once per day and crave sugar and carbs like I never have before. I feel like a chocolate addict and I never used to eat the stuff. I've been thinking that I'm looking for short term energy. I'm starting to worry about things like Diabetes, no joke. I used to have pretty good willpower and determination around food when I was motivated and I feel quite motivated but can't quite get it together to follow through on my plans.

Appletree - on the really bad nights we have started co-sleeping but even that doesn't always work (cause we didn't do it much before 12 months) and I still sleep like cr@p cause I wake slightly about a million times an hour and he doesn't let me roll over etc etc.

Hi Kaz

As everyone has already said, sleep has a definite impact on weight-loss. I have obstructive sleep apnoea (largely brought on by weight gain in pregnancy) on top of night wakings and it does take its toll, I know!

I can't really help with the night wake-ups, but I can share with your what has helped me with losing weight and maintaining energy levels and cravings.

So due to the impact of the weight on my health, I went to a dietician (I have 11kgs to lose before I am in a health weight range). I explained the situation and told her how tired I was and how I craved carbs all day long. She said that one way to firstly, lose weight and secondly, to curb daytime tiredness is to limit your carbs each day to about 3 or 4 (i.e. 3 slices of bread and 1 cup of milk would be your carbs for the day). It basically helps your insulin levels from fluctuating. Unstable insulin levels make you crave carbs, eat them, suffer a blood-sugar crash and start all over again - exactly what was happening to me!

I was scepticle and really didn't believe in restricting a food group, but it worked!! I no longer have those cravings and the tiredness is nothing like it used to be. Perhaps something like this will help you a bit and make your days easier?

I just wish someone had told me about this 11 months ago when the sleep deprivation and carb guzzling / weight-gain was out of control :( So I just thought I would share, incase it helps.

Hi, have just been reading your posts.....

this is very interesting, I have a little girl 18 months old and still night wakes.

I gained about 10 kgs once i stopped bf, I blamed it on the implanon implant so had that removed, its been about 5 months since I had it removed and although I havnt been doing regular exercise I just cant shift the weight :( Perhaps the night waking has something to do with it... I have been looking up low carb eating plans so "Life is Good" I might give that a go and see what happens.

Thanks Bella for that info.


Thanks :)