Here is the low down.  They found that people who exercise and eat the same could have two different outcomes based on one factor,  SLEEP.  Wow,  I really like that because I used to get up early to try to fit my workout into my busy day.  I now feel good about giving myself an extra half hour a day to sleep.  I even started to exercise for less time with better outcomes by making my workouts more intense.  That is for another blog.  You will not want to miss that!

Here is the low down.

"In a small study, getting less than the optimal amount of sleep each night had detrimental effects on a group of dieters. After 2 weeks, the dieters who had spent a mere 5.5 hours sleeping each night lost 55 percent less body fat compared with the dieters who spent 8.5 hours snoozing nightly. And here's the really big surprise. Not only did the light sleepers burn less body fat, but also their weight loss efforts carved away substantially more lean body mass than did similar efforts by the good sleepers. Not good, because muscle helps keep your metabolism fired up, so you naturally burn more calories throughout the day.

Hoarding Fuel

But that's not all. The short-duration sleepers also had higher levels of ghrelin in their system -- a hormone that induces hunger. And it seems that extra ghrelin triggered an energy-starved body to retain fat and calories rather than burn them. Interestingly, both groups of dieters lost the same amount of weight. But given the difference in muscle loss and appetite hormones as well as in calorie burning, it's easy to speculate that the good sleepers are better set up for long-term weight loss success."

Dr. Stockstad updates his blog at least once a week on health and fitness for his patients and those who follow his blog site.  Please share this with your family and friends.