Staying up late to accumulate belly fat, experts suggest ways to improve

A study in the United States found that people who stay up late and lack sleep tend to eat more. Worse still, the extra calories will be stored as fat and deposited where no one wants: around the belly.

According to United Press International, more than a third of American adults often lack sleep because of lifestyle choices, such as working the night shift and staying up late to use social media.

To find out the effect of sleep deprivation on fat accumulation, researchers at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine conducted a small study of 12 healthy people. The participants were between the ages of 19 and 39 and were not obese.

In the 21-day study, all participants underwent 4 days of acclimatization (9 hours of normal sleep at night), followed by 14 days of sleep restriction (only 4 hours of sleep at night) or a control experiment (9 hours of normal sleep at night), and finally a recovery period of 3 days (9 hours of normal sleep at night).

During this phase, all participants are allowed to eat anything. The researchers tracked what they ate and repeated various measurements such as energy intake and weight.

The team found that compared with normal conditions, the participants consumed 13% more protein and 17% more fat during this sleep-restricted phase, while there was no significant change in gains. or reduced activity.

During the sleep-restricted phase, participants gained only about 1 pound (0.45 kg), which is not a huge gain, says Virend Somers, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. , who led the study, said.

However, Professor Somers added: 'What surprised us was that the participants' visceral fat continued to increase even after the sleep restriction had ended and their dietary intake had returned to normal. normal (reduced food intake).'

He notes: 'It's the fat that builds up around the belly and internal organs, the kind of fat you don't see, but it's really the most dangerous fat.'

That's because deeply deposited visceral fat 'creates all sorts of toxins that cause heart and blood vessel disease', including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol - all of which, the professor said. Both can increase your risk of developing diabetes.

Sleep deprivation can lead to fat accumulation and even if you try to catch up on sleep it won't necessarily return to normal, he adds, 'it's not like a switch you can flip already. easy off.'

If you need to cut back on sleep over a period of time, you should pay attention to what you eat and how much of it, and get more exercise, says Prof Somers.

Paying attention to your diet and regular, reasonable exercise helps reduce belly fat during the times when you have to reduce the amount of sleep. (Source: Pixabay)

Plus, because visceral fat increases even when the scale barely budges, 'just measuring your weight won't tell you everything is good or bad,' he says.

This idea has also been endorsed by Dr. Harold Bays, medical director and president of the Louisville Center for Atherosclerosis and Metabolism Research.

Dr Bays said: 'Irregular sleep patterns – especially when caused by stress – have the potential to worsen body fat function, increase visceral or abdominal fat and worsen body composition, even without much change in body weight.'

The solution Dr. Bays suggests is simple: Get enough sleep.

The study results were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on April 5.