Sleep Restriction Leads To Less Fat-Loss



Regular readers will be well aware of the increasing data supporting the importance of adequate restorative sleep on metabolism and weight management.

Now, a study by Wang Xuewen and colleagues, published in SLEEP, shows just how detrimental sleep deprivation can be during a weight-loss diet.

Their study included thirty-six 35-55 years oldadults with overweight or obesity, who were randomized to an 8-week caloric restriction (CR) regimen alone (n=15) or combined with sleep restriction (CR+SR) (n=21). All participants were instructed to restrict daily calorie intake to 95% of their measured resting metabolic rate. Participants in the CR+SR group were also instructed to reduce time in bed on 5 nights and to sleep ad libitum on the other 2 nights each week.

The CR+SR group reduced sleep by about 60 minutes per day during sleep restriction days, and increased sleep by 60 minutes per day during ad libitum sleep days, resulting in a sleep reduction of about 170 minutes per week.Although both groups lost a similar amount of weight during the study ~3 Kg). However, the proportion of total mass lost as fat was significantly greater  in the CR group (80% vs. 16%).

In line with this substantial difference in fat reduction, resting respiratory quotient was significantly reduced only in the CR group.

Importantly, these effects of sleep deprivation on fat loss were observed despite the fact that subjects were allowed to sleep as much as they wanted on the non-restricted days. This suggests that the negative effects of sleep deprivation during weight loss are not made up by “make-up” sleep.

Although overall, the amount of weight lost in this study is modest, it clearly fits with the notion that adequate sleep (in this case, during weight loss), can be an important part of weight management.

Clearly, the role of sleep in energy homeostasis will remain an interesting field of research, as we continue learning more about how sleep (or rather lack of it) affects metabolism.

@DrSharma
Edmonton, AB