Poor sleep can undermine attempts to maintain weight loss, studies show.
Millions of overweight or obese people lose weight every year. But very often after that they face a struggle to keep the weight that comes back.
Now the results of a randomized study conducted by the University of Copenhagen and presented to the European Congress on Obesity suggest that better and longer sleep patterns can help maintain weight forever.
It is well known that lack of or poor sleep quality increases the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the accumulation of fatty deposits in the arteries.
Lack of enough sleep is also associated with diabetes, inflammation and heart disease. Scientists are now increasingly believing that poor sleep may be a contributing factor to weight recovery after weight loss.
In the study, 195 adults who were obese and between the ages of 18 and 65 followed a very low-calorie diet (800 kcal / day) for eight weeks, losing an average of 12% of their body weight.
They were then followed for one year. Their sleep duration was measured using data from wearable monitors and their quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a self-assessment questionnaire.
Those who slept less than six hours a night were found to have increased their body mass index (BMI) by an average of 1.3 percentage points after one year compared with those who slept more than six hours.
Similarly, the BMI for those who had poor sleep quality increased by 1.2 points after one year compared to those whose sleep was of good quality. The authors note that the study is observational and cannot prove that poor sleep causes changes in weight, but suggest that it is likely to contribute.
“The fact that sleep health is so strongly linked to maintaining weight loss is important because many of us do not get the recommended amount of sleep needed for optimal health and functioning,” said Prof. Signe Torekov of the University of Copenhagen.
More than a third of adults in the UK and US do not sleep often, according to previous research, largely due to many factors in modern life, including stress, computers, smart devices and blurring work and personal boundaries.
The study also found that about two hours of vigorous physical activity a week can help maintain better sleep.
“Future research examining possible ways to improve sleep in obese adults will be an important next step in limiting weight recovery,” Torekov said. “Exercise-supported weight loss seems promising to improve sleep.”
Meanwhile, a second study presented at the conference found that more than 1,300 prostate cancer deaths in the UK could potentially be prevented each year if the average man is not overweight.
The mechanisms behind the findings are still unknown, but researchers said the UK Biobank study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, suggested that men should try to maintain a healthy weight.
“Knowing more about the factors that increase the risk of prostate cancer is key to preventing it,” said study leader Dr. Aurora Perez-Cornago of Oxford University. “Age, family history and black ethnicity are known risk factors, but they are not subject to change, so it is important to identify risk factors that may change.
A third study presented at the conference found that almost a quarter of obese teenagers have no idea that they are obese, although most are worried about the effect of weight on their future health.
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