Bedtime for Bonzo

Well …

I guess if I'm going to keep a blog about health and fitness, it is only fitting that I start with my number one obstacle in changing my lifestyle to one that is consistently healthy.  If I'm going to provide advice in this forum, I should address my failings as well, right?  One of the keys to Potamus Power is recognizing one's strengths and weaknesses and attacking them head on.

You're on the Internet right now … open another tab and Google search (or Bing, or whatever the hell the cool kids are using) a few topics:  weight loss, health and fitness.  Go ahead, I'll wait 'til you come back.

La dee da dee da …

Alright, welcome back!

Now, if you spent a little time on the Internet searching for advice on how to lose weight, or how to get stronger, or diets (ugh … we'll talk about diets soon, I promise) then you probably came across a few pages that made some promises that sounded great. 

For example, you may have found a website that sold fitness equipment guaranteed to give you a brand new body!  Wow!  They probably didn't tell you how much it cost either, did they?  Don't waste your money, at least not yet, because no piece of fitness equipment is going to be the single most important thing to improving your health.

Another example:  You may have found a website for a fitness program or instructor that guaranteed that their program would help you lose weight … maybe in as little as 10 minutes a day, 3 times a week for 60 days.  To some degree they are right … what they don't tell you is that if you were physically fit enough to do their workouts, you wouldn't need to lose weight.

There's good info on the Internet too!  Many sites (and I'll point you towards them in future reviews) stress the point that nutrition is 90% of the battle in weight loss.  I don't know about that statistic, but I can't stress enough the importance of nutrition.  You are what you eat!  You can work out ten hours a day, but if you're eating garbage, you're gonna feel like garbage!

But what about the real deal?  What is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT element to losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle?  What is the SINGLE MOST DIFFICULT thing you are going to have to manage (it is for me, at least)?

Sleep!

For years researchers have known that adults who sleep less than five or six hours a night are at higher risk of being overweight. Among children, sleeping less than 10 hours a night is associated with weight gain.

… and I LOVE sleep!

A fascinating new study performed by Sleep researchers from the University of Colorado suggests that the link may be even more insidious than previously thought. Losing just a few hours of sleep a few nights in a row can lead to almost immediate weight gain.

Oh crap!

The researchers found that staying up late and getting just five hours of sleep increased a person’s metabolism. Sleep-deprived participants actually burned an extra 111 calories a day, according to the findings published in March of 2013 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  But even though we burn more calories when we stay awake, losing sleep is not a good way to lose weight. The light sleepers ended up eating far more than those who got nine hours of sleep, and by the end of the one week the sleep-deprived subjects had gained an average of about two pounds.

“We found that when people weren’t getting enough sleep they overate carbohydrates,” says Kenneth Wright, Director of the University’s Sleep and Chronobiology laboratory. “They ate more food, and when they ate food also changed. They ate a smaller breakfast and they ate a lot more after dinner.”

Ah jeez … that sounds familiar!

In fact, sleep-deprived eaters ended up eating more calories during after-dinner snacking than in any other meal during the day. Over all, people consumed 6 percent more calories when they got too little sleep. Once they started sleeping more, they began eating more healthfully, consuming fewer carbohydrates and fats. Dr. Wright noted that the effect of sleep deprivation on weight would likely be similar in the real world although it might not be as pronounced as in the controlled environment. The researchers found that insufficient sleep changed the timing of a person’s internal clock, and that in turn appeared to influence the changes in eating habits. “They were awake three hours before their internal nighttime had ended,” Dr. Wright said. “Being awakened during their biological night is probably why they ate smaller breakfasts.”

I'm guilty too!

I've been tracking my sleep since the first of 2014 and, thus far, have had only one night where I've slept for eight hours or more.  Is this playing a role in my weight loss and fitness goals?  You bet it is … and it is the toughest thing to change and correct.  Work, family, ever-changing schedules and a history of being a night-owl all conspire against me as I am sure they do with you.

So, if you're going to follow my lead and join the Potamus Power movement … do what I'm about to do:  brush your teeth and go to bed!

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January 16 2014
KING RICH
Weight:  191.6 lbs
BMI:  27.7
Body Fat:  26.0%

*  How accurate are these numbers?  Huh ... I don't really know.  But I am using the Weight Watchers by Conair Scales Glass Body Analysis Scale Model WW52 to measure my stats.  I am less concerned with the accuracy of the numbers themselves and more concerned with the change I hope to see in the future.  For consistency's sake, these stats will always come from the same source and appear with my bi-weekly posts. 

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