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How lack of sleep can affect your waistline

How lack of sleep can affect your waistline
How lack of sleep can affect your waistline
Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Did you know that cumulative lack of sleep negatively affects your health in more ways than one? Most people don’t think it’s a big deal to miss a few hours of sleep; but it is. Chronic sleep deprivation cannot only cause high blood pressure, stroke, a heart attack and serious mental impairment, even brain damage; it can also affect your waistline, sometimes leading to obesity.

Nearly 65% of Americans are now overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How is it possible, when we are busier than ever, that we are only getting fatter as a nation? Weight gain occurs when we take in more calories than we burn each day, that imbalance has been increasing among Americans for some time now. But in addition to that, lack of sleep has also started playing a role, here’s how.

  1. Sleepy people have less energy for exercise. When you walk around like a zombie all-day and still have to perform your daily tasks and duties, there’s much less of a chance that you’re going to sustain an exercise program. Check out 3 of the best short workouts here.
  2. Lack of sleep over a handful of days can impair your metabolism and disrupt hormone levels. Your body has more difficulty processing sugar when it’s sleep impaired therefore causing weight gain.
  3. Inadequate sleep has a direct affect on your mind causing an increase in appetite and calorie intake. The psychological toll that sleep deprivation takes on your body can cause you to confuse exhaustion with hunger, taking in additional unwanted calories and negatively affecting your waistline.

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