Sleep and meditation are closely related to weight loss. There is ample research to show that when you are lacking sleep, it is very likely going to affect your weight loss efforts.

Research has convincingly shown that people who lack sleep will find it difficult to lose weight. When you lose sleep, your hormonal system becomes imbalanced. Fat burning hormones such as the human growth hormone is compromised. In fact the human growth hormone is secreted in 2 or 3 spurts. Scientists say that this hormone is first secreted when you are in deep sleep at about 2 am. It is then again secreted at about 4 am. People who lack sleep or have very disrupted sleeping patterns will lose the beneficial effects of this potent fat burning hormone.

Shorter sleeping hours also cause an increase in cortisol levels. It also disrupts leptin levels. All these disruptions affect your weight loss efforts.

Even long sleep hours affect weight loss. Research has again showed that people who sleep beyond 8 hours will have a tendency to gain weight. Sleep and weight loss has a “U” shaped relationship. The optimum sleeping hours probably lie between 6 to 8 hours. The exact amount of sleep that you need probably depends on your lifestyle. People who exercise or do laborious work probably need longer sleep as compared to sedentary people.

Meditation and weight loss is also closely inter-related. Meditation helps reduce stress levels. People who are chronically stressed will find it very difficult to lose weight. Meditation helps to quiet the mind. A lot of people are able to rest the body but very few people are able to rest the mind.

Meditation has been shown to have a very beneficial effects on lowering stress levels. It has also been shown to have tremendous health benefits.

Sleep and meditation can greatly influence your weight loss efforts. These should not be taken lightly. If you are exercising and eating right but not losing weight, take a step back to look at your stress levels and sleep patterns. These seemingly small factors could be making a bigger than expected difference in your weight loss efforts.

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[0:00:03.3] Transcript of Sleep, Meditation and Weight Loss

I am Suresh V and I am Dr Jasvin and we are from the Correct Weight Loss Team. Today we are going to talk about another important aspect of the 7 keys of correct weight loss and this is on restoration.

[Suresh] Restoration is basically broken up into 2 components. The first part is good quality sleep and the other is stress relief. Dr Jasvin will talk a bit more about sleep and stress reduction and how it affects weight loss ,  fat loss and health.

[0:00:35.3] Cortisol affects weight loss

[Dr Jasvin] One of the most important things that we don’t realize is that stress and lack of sleep actually increases your cortisol levels. Constantly high cortisol levels can actually affect your weight loss efforts. A lot of people on exercise and nutrition programs don’t realize that their efforts are being negated by high levels of cortisol.

[Dr Jasvin] Adequate sleep is very important for the body to regenerate itself especially if you are on an exercise program. When you do weight resistance exercises or aerobic training , a lot of wear and tear is going on in the body. The body needs time to heal. It needs to take the time to wind down and relax.

[Suresh] You should be looking at about 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night depending on your lifestyle.

[Dr Jasvin] When you are pushing your body harder, you also need more rest to give your body time to heal. If you don’t give the body time to heal, two things will happen. Firstly, the healing process is slower. As a result of this, you cannot exercise properly. Also your cortisol levels get raised. You will feel very tired as a result of all this.

[Dr Jasvin] From my personal experience, lack of sleep results in me being extremely tired. I can’t push myself as hard during exercise as I would if I was adequately rested. So sleep is extremely important.

[0:02:13.6] Meditation and weight loss

[Suresh] Stress influences not only your fat loss or weight loss, but it also affects health. Some people are so strung up from work stress and other stresses that they are constantly jittery. They can’t sleep properly.

[Suresh] Exercise does help you reduce stress to a certain degree. I find from my personal experience, that the mind tends to be working overtime most of the time. I find that I benefit from having quiet time. I meditate for 10 to 15 minutes a day. This rests my mind.  Sleep does not rest your mind as your mind still seems to be working after a stressful day. When you rest your mind, you find that your body starts calming down. Stress levels come down. You find that you are able to get more out of your sleep.

[0:03:27.9] How meditation helped delinquent children

[Dr Jasvin] That’s interesting actually. Nothing to do with exercise. I think that a study was conducted in Australia on meditation, in a school. The rate of delinquent problems were very high in that school. So the school introduced a meditation program for children. Every day for 10 minutes, somebody came in and guided the children through meditation.

After 4 months, they plotted the graphs. Amazingly, all the social problems reduced in that school. This actually meant that the kids were calmer. They were less agitated. Their stress levels reduced as well.

[0:04:19.4] Greater clarity from meditation

[Suresh] This is precisely the point. We are stressed out because our minds are actually agitated. We don’t let our minds rest. Its like any machinery. If you don’t stop it and rest it, there is more wear and tear. I am not surprised with the findings of that study. Form my own personal experience of meditating for the last 10 to 15 years, I have gotten greater clarity of thought as a result of it.

[Suresh] When I read something, I understand it easily. When somebody talks to me, I can listen to them better. I don’t believe I have internal noise that filters information according to my own prejudices and biases. I can reply and they are contented with the reply. The reply answers their question and not taking them somewhere else and creating a whole bunch of meaningless discussions.

[0:05:06.2] Find a stress relieving technique

[Suresh] I guess that’s what we are trying to say. Get enough sleep and find a stress relieving technique. We personally find meditation extremely helpful. If you can find any other technique to calm your self and calm your mind, please use it. You  can then recharge yourself and recharge your hormonal system so that you benefit your weight loss efforts.

[Dr Jasvin] A lot of people do find prayers very helpful as well. It does to a certain degree quiet the mind as well.

[Suresh] Use whatever works. The key is to calm yourself and cut your stress levels. I have read a Harvard medical school report that said even medical practitioners meditated. This gave them more clarity of thought. They have done things that have gone beyond their expectations.

Meditation helps in all kinds of ways when it comes to weight loss. It helps in motivating yourself to carry on with losing weight. It helps by reducing distractions from the small mundane things in life. It helps you to stay focused.

That’s all for about sleep, meditation and weight loss for now. From the correct weight loss team, this time do it right.