How You Can Burn Fat by Sleeping More
Going to bed at a reasonable hour might be good for you in ways you never dreamed. Find out how sleep can help get you fit!
Ben Greenfield
In How to Use Cold Weather to Lose Weight, you learned that exposure to cold weather exercise, cold water baths, cold showers, or swimming in cold water can all activate the conversion of your regular fat tissue into brown fat tissue – which is able to burn energy as heat (aka, lose weight)!
This week, a study came out that reported the discovery of the specific protein in mice that regulates the activation of brown fat in both the brain and the body’s tissues.
When I read this research, I decided you should know about another way that you can burn fat by generating heat: sleep! During the night when you are sleeping, at about 2am your body’s core temperature begins to drop, and when this happens, you begin to burn your fat stores to generate extra heat.
The important thing to know is that this natural drop in core temperature only fully kicks in if you are careful to go to bed at a reasonable hour (usually close to 10pm) and limit your exposure to artificial light in the evening (so that you don’t shut down your natural production of melatonin).
So there you have it: go to bed at a reasonable time, sleep in the dark, and don’t watch too much TV or computer before bed, and you can burn more fat while you sleep.
If you have questions about how to sleep more to burn fat, then ask away at the Get-Fit Guy Facebook page.
Related Content:
How to Lose Weight Without Dieting
Lose Weight by Exercising Just 3 Minutes Per Week!
Sleeping Man photo courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.