How important is sleep for your body composition?

Sleep deprivation has been shown to have detrimental effects on processes such as immune function, cognitive performance, hunger, and hormones (1, 2, 3, 4).

The current study compared the effect of sleep duration on fat loss and lean body mass loss in subjects who were on a diet. One group spent 5.5 h in bed, while the other spend 8.5 h in bed.

The 5.5 h group lost 55% less fat mass and lost 60% more lean body mass compared to the 8.5 h group.

Interestingly, the 5.5 h group had higher concentrations of acylated (activated) ghrelin, which is known as a hunger hormone.

A strong point of this study was the subjects were kept at the university under supervision at all times.



Study:

Nedeltcheva et al. Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Ann Intern Med, 2010.

Go to the next infographic in the sleep series:

Caffeine decreases sleep duration?