Did You Know That Sleeping More On Weekends Makes You Gain Weight?

Due to the long work days and the daily activities that take place, you do not sleep the right hours. For this reason, on weekends, on their days off, they choose to relax more and try to recover their lost sleep; however, this habit can influence body weight.

According to a scientific study published in February 2019 in Current Biology, it states that recovering sleep lost at once does not favor weight loss either. But how was this conclusion reached?

The group of scientists divided 36 men and 36 healthy women into three groups and assigned them different sleep requirements in 10 days, which were distributed as follows:

Group 1: I had to sleep 9 hours a day without breaking this habit.

Group 2: should be restricted to 5 hours per day. The researchers came up with the idea of ​​investigating the effects of trying to get back on the weekends.

Group 3: should be restricted to 5 hours per day on weekdays, but they could sleep as much as they wanted on weekends.

After this follow-up, the scientists discovered that the third group faced more significant consequences for their health. Thus, the two groups that did not sleep enough had results on weight.

“One of the things that we discovered, and that others have discovered in the past, is that when people do not get enough sleep, they tend to eat more, partly because their body is burning more calories. But what happens is that people eat more than they need and why they gain weight”, mentions Vsevolod Polotsky, director of sleep research at the University Johns Hopkins.

Also, the researcher indicated that people who slept as much as they could return to their schedules without insufficient sleep; his body had more difficulty regulating blood sugar.

The study found that the third group showed an increase in their insulin sensitivity in their muscles and liver. This result was not different in the second group, which had regular restricted sleep schedules.

“Short, insufficient sleep schedules lead to difficulty in regulating blood sugar and increase the risk of metabolic syndrome [increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat and high levels of triglycerides] long term, “he explains.