Sleep usually isn’t the first thing you think about when you are considering ways to lose weight, but in reality, getting sufficient sleep is a vital factor of any diet program. Sleep assists your body to function well - and it helps fight against one of the natural causes of belly fat: cortisol. Let's examine this a bit closer.
Getting enough sleep lowers your stress level. When we have higher levels of stress, the stress triggers a chemical reaction inside our bodies that puts us into a type of "survival" mode. At this time, our bodies produce a chemical called cortisol - and it directly affects your belly fat. Cortisol production is our bodies' way of building up fat stores for the “difficult times ahead”.
Most people today have some elements of stress in their lives. Social, financial, personal and other obligations add to our stress levels on a regular basis. The incessant bombardment of advertisements and information, “self-imposed famines" that we call “diets”, and a whole lot more all contribute to raising our stress levels - and as a result enlarging our waist lines - than ever before. Belly fat cortisol production sky rockets inside of us due to stress.
If you want to reduce your belly fat, one thing you really need to try to do is to simply slow down and relax. Allow your body the rest and amount of time it needs to create endorphins (the feel-good chemicals that you want instead of belly fat cortisol). Enough endorphins inside you contributes to your feeling more content and upbeat about everything - including your appearance.
Getting enough sleep is also incredibly important for those who exercise or do muscle strengthening on a regular basis. Sleep gives your body time to repair itself.
Those achy muscles from strength training are brought on by microscopic tears inside your muscle tissues, and sleep allows your muscles to rebuild them stronger than before. Those “rebuilt” muscles are part of the increased lean muscle mass in your body, and the greater amount of lean muscle mass you have, the faster your body burns through calories - even while you are resting.
Getting enough sleep is not always enjoyable or easy. According to several studies, the majority of people do not get even close to the 7 to 10 hours that their bodies require. And if you want to get that lean body and fight belly fat cortisol, be sure to get enough sleep to ward off weight gain.
How can you make sure you get an adequate amount of sleep? The easiest way to find out is to simply do a quick review of how many hours of sleep you are getting on a regular basis. If you are lower than 7 hours each night, look at what is keeping you up.
Video games, movies or tv, computer time alcohol, and more all act as stimulants that keep you awake when you could be getting that precious sleep. Some quick tips for enhancing your sleep time are to avoid caffeine of any kind after noon, do some yoga or stretching, chat with a trusted friend, or journal about the stress in your life.
Try to avoid the use of sleeping aids, and it is entirely too easy to get addicted to them. Discuss them with a physician before usage.
Another great way to encourage good sleeping habits is to make your bedroom a peaceful, quiet place. Use some cheap foam earplugs if noises wake you up, get some heavy curtains to keep out the light in the early morning hours, wind down with a cup of chamomile tea and a good book, or with personal devotions.
These are all ways your “belly fat one rule” of getting enough sleep will work for you, how you can ward off the build up of belly fat, cortisol production, and more.
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