Can sleep issues cause weight gain?

Recently I was asked the following questions “Can sleep issues cause weight gain?” and the very simple answer is YES!

There are different reasons why this can happen. One of them is that sleep is there to balance your hormones. During the day, depending on your stress levels and just your regular life, your hormones are a little bit out of balance or a lot, depending on what stage of life you are at and your circumstances.

Sleep is basically like a little plumber who goes around at nighttime and looks at the valves. He/she is re-regulating everything so that it flows nicely. Now, there are mainly two hormones that we're going to look at today and those are leptin and ghrelin and both are responsible for your hunger. They basically control how hungry you are and when. 

Ideally, when you are full, you will get a signal that will tell you, "I'm full! So, let's stop eating." Then it will also keep you full until your stomach and everything is empty and it's like, "Okay, now it's actually appropriate to get our next feed" so to say. 

When those hormones are imbalanced, this is not working the way it should. You feel full later; so you're eating more, but you're craving your next meal much early again. You're eating more often and bigger quantities, which in the end, is going to make you gain weight. 

Also, if your hormones are not balanced, your metabolism is suffering.Your SAL energy (Self Awareness Life energy) is suffering, your liver is suffering, and what happens is that detoxification suffers and fat is being stored. Fat and water are being stored because not everything is working properly and that is why very often, due to hormone issues, we women have these love handles around our hips and around our legs. All of these things can be traced back to your sleep and your hormones not working the way they should.

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Obviously it also depends on your diet. But having said that, when you're tired, it's much more difficult to dominate your cravings than if you're not. Again, hormone imbalance is responsible for that. Very often, I'll also see Candida in there, which is keeping you from sleeping and craving your sugars. 

All of these things are interconnected, which is why I look at all those different facets when I work with my clients. I remember a client of mine, a former rugby player, who after overcoming his sleep issues was eating a lot more, but was losing weight, which is fun. His wife didn't think it was as fair (!!), but it's because we suddenly got everything back on track and he was fit again. He lost weight and looked healthy.

I love it when we get to see transformations and results like that!

I hope this answers your question and if you have any other questions on another sleep related topic, let me know and I'll be talking to you soon.

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