Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

About two months ago, my leader at Weight Watchers brought up people who had gotten to their weight loss goal and achieved lifetime status (maintained the weight loss for six weeks). A lot of the people gave good advice in that meeting, but all I remember is a lady who has been at goal for a couple of years now.

My teacher asked the panel of people what they did for exercise to lose weight. The woman who answered was sheepish. She said, “I didn’t exercise at all to lose weight.” Everyone was shocked. She then added quickly, “but I allowed myself to sleep any time that I felt tired, no matter when it was. I think sleep is just as important as exercise.” I looked at her tiny frame and was amazed that she didn’t exercise to get where she was. She had lost almost 100 pounds without exercising. How did she do it?

This article might have an answer:

• SignOnSanDiego.com – Too little sleep raises the risk of being overweight, study suggests

“Those who got less than four hours of sleep a night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who got the recommended seven to nine hours of rest, scientists discovered. Those who averaged five hours of sleep had 50 percent greater risk, and those who got six hours had 23 percent more.”

We need eight hours of sleep every night just to maintain our weight at a healthy level. When we are restricting our calorie levels to lose weight, we might even need more. I know that when I’m tired, I will reach for food to wake me up. I’ve just recently decided that I’m going to let myself sleep whenever I feel drowsy or tired, even if that means taking a nap in the middle of the day. If given the choice between exercise and sleep, I’ll choose sleep every time.