What I came across today: really interesting information when you're desperately trying not to gain weight but something unfathomable is going very, very wrong. You try and try and it ain't happening.
Well, are you sleeping enough? Well enough, early enough?
I never thought to connect the amount of sleep I get with my fluctutions in weight. Stands to reason that other things work out better as well when you get enough sleep, - but your weight? Blimey, that's a really good point - I will definitely watch out for a bit to see how I am doing on this.
Here is the link to the article: "People who stay up late eat more, eat worse, study finds". There is the link to the source data on Obesity, a research journal, this also mentions previous studies on animal feeding times and their weight regulation. One of the big conclusions of the present study (about humans, obviously) is that eating after 8pm increases the risk of obesity. Who'd have thought that there's scientific evidence for this. In-ter-est-ing!
Years ago I saw an Oprah Winfrey programme where she mentioned that she doesn't eat after a certain time in the evening ("Not even a grape!"), which happened to be earlier than 8pm, and was and is way too early for me. I would think that her work day starts a lot earlier than mine though. I'd arrived at a 8pm cut-off time as a good time for me and I was very happy to find that I lost over a stone and a half in weight. It took about 8-9 months. The nice thing was that I wasn't doing anything all that differently except for just not eating after 8pm. (Most of the time: aiming for doing the right thing 80% of the time is good. It is achievable and that percentage gives you optimum effect and the best chance of success)
The trick is to find the right time to make the change into the new regime. Our habits don't let go of us so easily, it takes a bit of time and effort to adapt to a new habit and stick with it. When I had success with this (rather a while ago...) it was because I started on a Friday evening when I didn't have anything on and a whole relaxing weekend to get into it - there was no pressure, no stress from having to be anywhere or do anything. I think I'd like to do that again: look out for the right time and then go for it. Might be useful to make sure I have healthy food in the house and an idea of what to cook so I can do that in time for the cut-off point. Always useful to have a plan...
The bit about not eating even a grape is to do with the acid/fruit sugar in a grape: it does a great job in increasing your appetite. Not the sort of thing you want to happen late in the day: you've already eaten your evening meal and you really don't want to have to deal with getting hungry again. Particularly when you had enough food... Makes sense, don't it?
The increase in appetite is down to, I think, the effect on your stomach juices (or are they called digestive or gastric juices? Basically, the liquid stuff that breaks down food). Plain water is good: there's nothing in there with unwanted side effects and it fills your stomach. Some people prefer not to drink anything with a meal, they say that it dilutes those stomach juices and makes digestion less effective, or something along those lines. I am not sure what I think of this thought yet, I'll have to look into it a bit further.
There's another good article: "Are you getting enough good sleep?"
This also relates consequences of poor sleep as "increased fat storage" as well as "reduced insulin sensitivity" amongst other factors. I thought the reference to magnesium deficiency was very interesting. The problem is that symptoms of magnesium deficiency are extremely hard to interpret correctly.
