Sleeping For Just One Hour Less While Dieting Could Do This To Your Physique!

We all know that we should be sleeping 8-9 hours a day but yet we fail to put it into action.

After all, getting an hour or two less sleep time isn’t going to do much harm, right?

Well, I was just as shocked as you are going to be after reading this article when I found out what sleeping just one hour lesser than required can do to your physique when you’re dieting.

This is going to be a short article, but it is something I wanted you all to know, which is why I’m still putting it out!

For this article, I’ll be referring to a fairly recent study, undertaken in 2018, which focused on the effects of sleep restriction on individuals who are dieting.

Let’s begin!

Influence of sleep restriction on weight loss outcomes associated with caloric restriction

Xuewen Wang, Joshua R. Sparks, Kimberly P. Bowyer and Shawn D. Youngstedt

In this study, the test subjects were overweight and obese adults who were put on an 8-week caloric restriction.

They were split into two groups.

The first group was just on the caloric restriction.

The second group had their sleep restricted along with their caloric restriction.

The first group slept normally throughout the week while the second group was made to sleep for 60 minutes lesser than group 1.

To make this experiment more natural, the second group was allowed to get in an extra hour of sleep on the weekends.

The conclusion?

While similar weight was lost in absolute terms, the proportion of total mass lost was different between the two groups!

The important term here is proportion!

For Group 1: Total mass lost as fat mass (%)

80.7 ± 43.3

For Group 2: Total mass lost as lean mass (%)

84.8 ± 110.2

We don’t need to get detailed about the numbers but the main concern here is that the group which had their sleep restricted along with their calories lost a higher proportion of lean mass.

Here is the Statement of Significance from the paper itself;

“Statement of Significance

Previous studies suggest that sleep restriction during caloric restriction adversely affects weight-loss outcomes. This study extends previous findings by examining the effects of a much longer duration of intervention (8 weeks) using a randomized controlled trial (caloric restriction alone or combined with sleep restriction). Furthermore, the sleep restriction was moderate, approximated 60 min shorter on the 5 days of restricted sleep each week. Ad libitum sleep was allowed on the other 2 days each week so that the sleep pattern mimicked real life. We found that sleep restriction resulted in less loss of fat but greater loss of lean mass among the total mass lost, despite similar weight loss between the two groups. Other metabolic changes were also observed.”

One thing you have to keep in mind while reading this article is the fact that these subjects weren’t weight training. If they would be weight training, the results would be different. But would they be different enough to overcome this large proportional difference?

As of now, all we can say is that getting a minimum of 7-8 hours of sleep a day is the best way to go, especially if you are in a diet phase.

Not only will getting a proper amount of sleep positively affect your recovery, but it will also help you minimize loss of lean mass on a cut.

Moreover, if you are someone who is hoping to build muscle while cutting, this is something you definitely should pay attention to!

I hope you found this information of some use and I hope it encourages you to try to squeeze in a little more sleep time.

Share it with someone who you know should be sleeping more!

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