WEEK 3: DAY 2 · TUESDAY 

The Importance of Sleep 😴

LOW CARB DAY

 

Weekly affirmation: “This week I will choose to trust the process, trust my coach and trust myself. I believe that my journey is a marathon and not a sprint. I am doing good things for my mind and my body every day. I am becoming the very best version of myself.”

 

Good morning, friends! Who is ready to completely deplete your glycogen stores (carbs/sugars) today so we can turn into major fat burners? 🔥 Remember what you've learned so far: Your body has two primary energy sources - carbs and fats. Our bodies will always use carbs for energy first. When we carb cycle and keep our NET carbs below 50g, we are able to tap into our fat stores for energy. Burn baby, burn! 🙌 Please let me know if you still have questions pertaining to carb cycling. It’s important for you to understand it well as we move forward. 

 

Today we are chatting about how sleep plays a role in your overall journey! Because a healthy sleep pattern is crucial for being a fat burner, it’s a topic that we don’t need to hit “snooze” on. 😉 We focus on our sleep quantity AND our sleep quality in this lifestyle because both are important. Per the FASTer Way, here are some of the negative effects sleep deprivation has on your body:

 

  • INCREASED CORTISOL LEVELS - Cortisol is your body’s stress hormone. When your cortisol levels are high, your body stores fat. Not getting enough sleep can raise cortisol levels in the body and make it more difficult to burn fat. Keep those cortisol levels low and get some sleep!! 

 

  • IMBALANCE OF HUNGER HORMONES - Not sleeping enough affects your hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin). Ghrelin signals to your brain when it’s time to eat and leptin lets your body know that you’ve eaten enough. When your sleep isn't in check, these hormones can't regulate, causing it to be difficult to gauge your true hunger/full signals. 

 

  • DECREASED SENSITIVITY TO INSULIN - After just a few days of insufficient sleep, your body will struggle to process insulin (the hormone responsible for changing sugar and starches into energy). When your insulin sensitivity is decreased, you are going to store fat.

 

TODAY’S ACTION ITEMS:

  • Track and post a screenshot of your macros. I want to hear from everyone today! 👌 Nutrition Tab > Macro Goals (More >).

  • Let me know how your sleep is! Has it gotten better since you began a few weeks ago? Did you know that lack of sleep affects your hormones; therefore, negatively affecting fat loss attempts?

 

BONUS ACTION ITEMS:

  • Check out this blog to learn why adequate sleep helps burn fat. I want you to take advantage of all the resources you're being given over the course of your experience. 💥

https://www.fasterwaytofatloss.com/blog/2017/1/9/sleep-better-to-burn-fat

More to learn:

Let’s dig a little deeper regarding the importance of sleep and also mitigating or reducing stress.  Many people do not realize that lack of sleep and high stress levels are affecting their health and weight negatively! The quantity and quality of sleep are both critical if you want to become a pro-fat burner. Here’s why:

 

  • As mentioned this morning, when you aren’t sleeping well, your cortisol (the body’s stress hormone) levels rise and when cortisol levels are high, it makes it extremely difficult for your body to burn fat. 

  • When we aren’t sleeping, we are often stressed. When we are stressed, we often aren’t sleeping. Do you see how the two go hand in hand? No wonder our cortisol levels are high and we can’t burn fat. It’s a vicious cycle! 🔄

  • Did you know that your body has hunger hormones? They’re called ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin tells your body when it’s time to eat. Leptin tells your body when it’s full. When you aren’t sleeping, both of these get out of balance; therefore, we are not able to tune into our hunger/full signals. We want to be acutely aware of our hunger so that we can eat to live - not live to eat.

  • Another problem that lack of sleep causes is decreased sensitivity to insulin.  When your insulin sensitivity is decreased, you are going to store fat.

 

It is important to note that some stress is good for us. For example, when we exercise or even intermittently fast, we are putting stress on the body, but that is short lived stress.  We need stress when it comes to situations where we need to fight or flight. It is when the stress becomes chronic that our health suffers. Chronic stress can cause heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes. It can also cause insomnia as mentioned above, and a multitude of other things! Check out the blog post attached for tips on how to sleep better during stressful times.

 

https://www.fasterwaycoach.com/blog/2020/4/6/9-tips-to-sleep-better-during-stressful-times

 

XOXO!