How I broke my plateau... sleep!

I posted a bit ago about how I was plateauing. It turns out that I wasn't getting enough sleep. It's recommended that one should get seven or eight hours of sleep, which I do, but when I get at least nine, I break my plateau. This is the second weekend that this has happened. I never get nine hours on weekdays so I'm the same weight until Saturday morning comes after I've gotten more sleep. I read somewhere that some people need up to ten hours when they work out so maybe it's okay that I get nine.

Anyone else have similar findings?

Yes! I lost very little weight through August and September despite running a good calorie deficit. I figured out that the difference during that period was more stress and less sleep. Since I started making sure I get 7-8 hrs, I am losing again. But I really do need more, I just stay tired when I am exercising a lot.

I've noticed I weigh less after a good sleep, like this whole week I was staying around the same weight (and getting frustrated cause I exercised a lot and ate very well), then I went to sleep Friday, woke up Saturday, and the scale finally changed!  It could also be because I took Friday off from exercise...so that time off PLUS the extra sleep probably helped my body to repair and drop a little =)

I've noticed this too, but I always thought because I was sleeping longer my stomach totally and completely emptied from the night before, which is why I weighed less in the morning. :-s

Just my 2 cents.  I only get at MOST 6 hours of sleep a night (oh the joys of engineering school), but I've found that every time I've weighed myself both before and after sleeping it's been exactly the same without fail.  Maybe if I slept more it would be different.

denise07 -- I started sleeping less on the weekends after I was tired of getting pestered by my boyfriend because I "slept too much." He can get six or seven hours of sleep and be perfectly fine. I, on the otherhand, need a lot more than that. I told him to quit giving me flack for sleeping "a lot" (nine hours) because we (myself and my body) obviously need it!

deflepfan16 -- Congrats on breaking your plateau!

nicolek6 -- I totally understand your point. However, if I weigh myself at nights (before bed) after having not gotten enough sleep the previous nights , I still weigh the same and never break my plateau :(

spudlewski -- I hear you on that. I never got a lot of sleep in college (probably five or six hours a night) so I understand where you're coming from. I definitely slacked off in college and that's where I gained all my weight so it's a good thing you're watching it now instead of after!

Congrats!  ... I can't believe how much people push healthy living but they don't often get enough sleep.  It's the KEY to being awake! 

Despite being a ridiculously busy person(including being in a competitive engineering program.  Yay!  Go engineers!) I put sleep as a top priority.  My friends always poke fun at me for going to bed early but it's simply not good to go without sleep.  I never poll "all-nighters" and somehow I still maintain my grades.  I wake up early with most days starting at 6:30 with me in the gym... and that includes weekends. 

 

 

does anyone know about the effects of sleeping a full 8 hrs, or sleeping less at night and taking naps? just curious...

  Don't know about the diet benefits, but I can tell you that I function better when I can get a cat nap in the afternoon, whether I'm short on sleep or not. Nothing extreme, literally just 5 or 10 minutes of drifting off makes all the difference in my afternoon attentiveness and stress.

 

-CD 

I LOVE my sleep! I try to average 7-8 hours during the week, and sleep in on the weekends if I feel I need it. This last week was really stressful, so I slept A LOT this weekend. Whether it helped with my weight loss, I'm not sure, but I certainly feel a whole lot better being rested. Maybe that's it? More sleep =  less stress= less likely to gain weight due to stress and/or more sleep= more energy= more moving around. Who knows :D

But I know I feel my best after a good 10 hours of solid sleep. You know...when my cats don't wake me up at 5 AM <__<

I notice the same! I always lost the most weight when I weight myself on mornings where I have gotten at least 9 hours...haha it's gotten so bad that some days when I wake up earlier I will try to force myself to sleep an extra hour so I can get to 9 and lose! But if the scale doesn't go down much on nights where I haven't gotten much sleep, I don't let myself worry about it too much.

Sleep is important certainly. Stress and lack of sleep can impede weightloss for sure. Here are some articles from the CC+ Library posted by our resident experts on the subject:

Getting enough sleep may aid weightloss

Stress and weightloss 

However, in my case, I am not sure there is a huge difference between 6-7 and 9 hours of sleep. If I get up at 8am and weigh myself I weigh 1+ lb heavier than when I later weigh myself at 11am (even after coffee etc unless I have a huge breakfast). So, along those same lines, if I sleep in until 11am I will get the impression that sleep has helped me "lose" weight when in fact, it's just b/c I am weighing at different times of day (11am vs 8am). Hmmm .... That being said, I am sure I need more sleep, I am constantly tired, though less so since I lost 25 lbs. 

i'd love to be able to sleep more.  sounds great.  and i haven't been losing weight, so now all i have to do is figure out how to accomplish this.  1) short on time.  2) hard for me to get to sleep and stay asleep, has been for years.

but thanks for your anecdote.  at least now i can say it's not COMPLETELY bec i'm a total food failure.