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You're listening to episode number three of the Fat Fuelled Female podcast.
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Welcome to the Fat Fuelled Female podcast. I'm your host Marja Chow, a holistic nutritionist, personal trainer and proud dog mama of two. I am obsessed with helping women achieve their goals, feel confident in their skin, and become empowered health advocates.
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This podcast is designed to help ambitious women thrive on a low carb, high fat lifestyle. So tune in each week as we talk all aspects of nutrition, improving your fitness, enhancing your mindset, so that you can take inspired action, and live your best life all starting from the inside out.I'm so happy to have you here. Now let's get started.
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Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to another episode of the Fat Fuelled Female podcast. I am so excited to be here and talk about the sleep and weight loss connection. And how sleep is integral not just for weight loss, but also for us to function at an optimal level.
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And in this episode, I will go over 10 actionable steps you can take to improve your sleep. So let's rewind the clock back. Let's think pre COVID Our lives were more hectic and fast paced than ever before, from balancing our careers taking care of our households, making time for our partner, looking after children caring for our dogs or cats or animals and still trying to socialize and find time for ourselves.
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The silver lining of COVID Is it allowed the world to finally slow down. And hopefully for many of us during these last few years, we've had time to reflect on our lives and put more importance and attention and energy into improving our health.
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Health is the one thing you really can't buy. You know, it's that conscious effort and intention and decisions you make each day. Good health shines through in longevity, right?
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It's the nutrition choices and the health choices that you make each day that compound effect, which bring you into a bigger, brighter, better future. Right? I
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f you don't have the best habits right now. It's not gonna affect you tomorrow, right? But it could affect you in two years, three years, five years, 10 years, a decade. So the silver lining of COVID is it allows people to really put more awareness and importance of taking care of our health.
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So let's talk about sleep. I like to give this example. So let's think about exercise. Obviously, exercise is beneficial for anyone, no matter what type of exercise you like, whether it's cardio, whether it's CrossFit, whether it's weight training, whether it's yoga, whatever form of exercise you can be consistent with and lights you up, that is your jam and stick with it.
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So say you like lifting weights, if you miss a few days at the gym, not a huge deal, right? Let's talk about if you have been fasting, say you've been fasting for three or six months, and you're like, I'm going to try a 24 hour fast, my fasting muscle is strong, I'm ready to do this. So you remove food from your diet for 24 hours and only have water.
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Okay, you will survive. And you'll probably feel pretty good during the fast or after the fast. But let's think about not sleeping properly for one night, say you run off of two to three hours for one night. And the second night. It's kind of the same story two to three hours, how would you feel you would feel like garbage. You would feel delirious with a scattered brain, you would feel like your head wasn't screwed on properly, and your hormones would be completely out of whack.
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Yet so many people don't value the quality of their sleep as much as their exercise routine or nutrition routine. So our sleep is really precious time that allows our bodies to heal and regenerate. Our bodies need need need to shut down and rebuild on a nightly basis. So proper sleep allows us to begin each day with vitality, energy and excitement. So making an effort to improve your sleep habits can enhance your quality of life and facilitate positive motivation and energy and vitality to crush your goals.
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So let's talk about the hormone cortisol, sleep and weight gain. So if you don't know what cortisol is, is a hormone that is secreted from your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands are these two glands that sit on your back on top of your kidneys. Okay, cortisol is known as the stress hormone. Also when your body goes through a fight or flight, so when we are sleep deprived, our stress hormone cortisol can be elevated your body's like what the heck, we did not get rest tonight, when this occurs, our appetite can increase.
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So higher amounts of cortisol can make you feel hungry, even when you have eaten enough. So if more cortisol is secreted for an extended period of period of time, the body can be like, Oh my gosh, we're under like major stress.
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The thing with cortisol is your body cannot differentiate if you are running from a tiger, or if you are sleep deprived or fighting with your partner, the same physiological response happens.
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The difference is when you're running from that tiger, that cortisol is circulating through your body and is secreted and leaves. When you are sleep deprived and fighting with your partner are stressed out with work, it stays more stagnant.
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So higher amounts of cortisol for extended period of time, your body is like, oh my gosh, we are under so much stress, we need to protect all our vital organs, so you can gain more weight in the midsection.
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The other thing when you have elevated levels of cortisol, your body's number one priority is we are under attack, we are stressed out, we need to make more cortisol, so all the other hormones get pushed to the back. And cortisol takes top priority.
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So this can cause some form of hormonal imbalance if it's over, you know, if you're sleep deprived for a longer period of time, like not just a night, right?
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With elevated cortisol, it raises blood sugar, and it raises insulin levels. So for example, I know if I don't sleep properly, it's like, I don't wake up and I don't want like eggs and avocado. I'm like, where are the carbs?
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And it makes sense because elevated cortisol raises blood sugar and raises your insulin levels. So unnecessary cravings for carbohydrates such as chips, cookies, crackers, candy, pass the donuts, pizza, all of it can take over your thoughts, right?
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So cortisol really is that stress hormone that in today's society, a lot of people are secreting far too much. Based on your diet, being a sugar burner, you can be secreting cortisol multiple times a day. And then if you are sleep deprived, that is going to be elevated.
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So let's talk about leptin, the hormone leptin and weight gain. So sleep affects hormonal imbalance, obviously, which is necessary for effective weight loss. This is particularly true of the hormone leptin, which plays an important role in your hunger levels.
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So what is leptin? If you haven't heard of leptin, it's a hormone released from fat tissue, and it plays a key role in regulating hunger, keeping you feeling satiated and full, and it indirectly controls the rate of fat loss.
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So when you eat, leptin is secreted and signals a part of your brain known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus really regulates your hunger and your appetite, that hey, you know, there's enough stored energy as fat, you can put the fork down and stop eating.
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So as leptin levels rise, your appetite diminishes. As leptin levels fall, your appetite increases, I'll say again, as leptin levels rise, your appetite diminishes as leptin levels fall, your appetite increases.
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So leptin levels naturally increase, which is a good thing when we are sleeping, but they drop off when we are sleep deprived, so not so good.
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So when leptin levels decrease, we may feel excessively hungry, and the chances of overeating are increased. So with higher cortisol, right, you will crave those sugary foods your blood sugar can be elevated, your insulin can be called upon, and with lower levels of leptin, your hunger will be increased.
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So this is why sleep habits should be just as much a priority as your nutrition and your exercise routine. Just looking at these two hormones, cortisol and leptin.
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So let's go over 10 lifestyle habits you can incorporate to improve your sleep.
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So number 1, try to sleep a minimum of six or a maximum of nine hours per night. Okay, everybody is different. There are those people that like thrive off like five and a half hours of sleep. And there are those other people that are like I need nine.
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So be intentional. See how much you need with your body and try You're very hardest is to get that amount of sleep per night.
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Number 2 establish regular sleep hours. So go to bed and wake up the same time every day, even on weekends. So this gets your body into that rhythm and that routine.
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When your sleep is really balanced, what will happen is you will wake up like five minutes or like a minute or two minutes before your alarm goes off.
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Your body's just in that regular rhythm and routine.
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Number 3 asleep in complete darkness. Your room should be as dark as possible to maintain melatonin balance. So I personally have like roll down blackout blinds, and then I also have blackout curtains on top to make sure no light gets in.
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Now if you don't have those, just wear like a blackout eyemask. And that will do the trick. You just don't want light because it can affect melatonin balance. So also, if you go to the bathroom a little in the middle of the night, don't turn on the light.
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Even for a few seconds this can down regulate melatonin production, and can contribute to poor sleep.
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Number 4, this may be hard for some people at night disconnect from your phone, TV Internet one to two hours before bed. So try your hardest to disconnect from social media and the internet before bed. This can heighten the brain and not allow it to relax.
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If you have a difficult time sleeping, that blue light on your phone or TV isn't going to help calm you down. So choose a book, I know my eyes will get really heavy two to three pages in the book opposed to watching TV that's going to excite me. So disconnect from technology.
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Number 5, try not to eat a minimum of two to three hours before going to bed. So if you eat closer to bedtime, your body is going to be focusing on digesting food, not restoring it.
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So you have something called your body clock, your circadian rhythm. So different organs regenerate at different times of the night. So your liver, I believe regenerates around 11am Or sorry, 1am and 3am.
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So say you go to bed relatively late and you're eating at 12, your liver is not going to get that regeneration, it's like your body is going to be focusing on breaking down that food.
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And I find that people eat too close to bed, they wake up and they feel kind of they feel heavy, they don't feel like refreshed because your body's been working all night digesting your food.
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All right, number 6, do not drink fluids two hours before going to bed. This is pretty self explanatory. If you're drinking a lot of fluid before you go to bed, you're going to have to urinate through the night. And if you're in a you're gonna you know, interrupt your sleep and be waking up multiple times throughout the night.
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Number 7, do 10 minutes of meditation or deep breathing before bed, you can just do some deep breathing on your own with nothing. Or you can use an app such as like calm or headspace popping your air pods.
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And that will help you know bring your body activate that parasympathetic nervous system and get you into more of a relaxed state. If you don't have those apps, you can go into YouTube. And there is you know, free meditations you can do there.
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And you know, I did say disconnect from technology. But you're not going to be looking at your phone when you're doing these apps, you're just going to put your earbuds in or your headphones and be listening to the meditation. Okay.
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And then number 8, learn what your sleep chronotype is. So if you don't know what a chronotype it it Chronotype is it is a pre determined genetic factor, which is indicative to your sleep cycle and behavior.
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So there are four Chronotypes a lion, a wolf, a bear or a dolphin. I personally am a bear. And it made so much sense when I did this quiz, since it aligned with when I'm most productive and how my sleep cycle is.
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So if you want to learn more about your sleep chronotype we will put the link in the show notes and you can go onto that site, do the quiz and see exactly what your sleep chronotype is. https://thepowerofwhenquiz.com/
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One more thing. My partner swears by the oura ring. I actually just purchased mine but it hasn't come in the mail. And the oura ring will track your sleep. It's like the most effective way to actually see how many hours you're sleeping. How often you're waking up if you're in REM sleep if you're in deep sleep, so he swears by it.
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So my sleep isn't the best sometimes I'll have really good times or I'm sleeping then it'll be dysregulated so I am actually waiting for this to come in. I I feel like this is going to really because it's something I can measure.
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So it's really going to help me get my sleep more on track. So, oura ring, they actually came out with a new ring. So I'll link that in the show notes as well.
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Number 9, this is when you're waking up. Avoid using a loud alarm clock. If it's like Beep, beep, beep, you're rested and it's just going to be this really loud noise waking you up.
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If you find that you are you know, always pressing snooze, and you're you know, sleeping through your alarm, that's a clear indication that your sleep is out of whack and that you may be a little bit sleep deprived.
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I personally wake up to I think it's a John Legend song I forget what it's called, but it's like very calm, and soothing. And I'm not waking up to the beep, beep beep, you can just make up wake up to like a meditation song, but try to get rid of that. Try to get rid of the loud alarm clocks and beeping okay.
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And then number 10. This is when you wake up as well. Turn on the lights, open the blinds, as soon as you wake, allow the daylight and the sounds of the morning to stimulate you wake the brain up and get you going in AM.
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So this is everything for today's episode, take some of these tips, put them into action, and see your productivity and readiness improve and everything that I mentioned. All those links will be in the show notes. So thank you so much for listening, and I will catch you all next week. Muah!
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Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. And if you feel you got some extra value from this episode, it would mean the world to me. If you could head over to Apple podcast or whatever service you're listening to this podcast on. Drop a five star review and let me know your thoughts on the show. This helps more people like yourself find the podcast and if you're not already following me on social media right now is the time you can find me on Instagram at Marja Chow for all your nutrition tips, tricks and inspiration or visit my website at bat fueled female.com where you can download my free seven day keto meal plan with recipes. Thank you so much for tuning in. I will catch you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
