What is the link between Sleep and fitness? When asked about the best ways to achieve a healthy weight most of our answers will be related to diet and exercise. It sounds like a simple equation – less intake of calories versus more calories spent equal weight loss. However, many of us are forgetting an essential activity for good health: sleep.

Sleep and Fitness – what is the correlation?

While many will argue that they can function fine with only a few hours of sleep, their body weight may be telling a different story. Limited sleep causes our body to produce less efficient insulin. Insulin is responsible for signalizing to our fat cells to remove acids and lipids from our bloodstream. With ineffective insulin, the fat cells start storing up on our blood signalizing the pancreas to produce more insulin. This overproduction causes our fat cells to over-store fat leading to weight gain. In simple terms, sleep deprivation affects our metabolism more than one may think.

When it comes to exercise, a lot of people consider sleeping their favorite sport, and as it turns out they may not be wrong. Sleep and Fitness are connected. The American Journal of Epidemiology researched the effects of sleep deprivation in women and found that those who slept less were a third more likely to gain extra pounds over the subsequent 16 years than those who enjoyed seven hours of sleep per night.

There isn’t an exact number of hours of sleep that is beneficial for all people. A good approach to figuring out if you are sleeping enough is to take a “sleep vacation.” Reserve one weekend to relaxation and stay in bed for as long as you can. If you can fall back asleep with little naps through the day is probably because your body was starving for this break. If you are full of energy and bored, it is a sign that your body is rested and ready to move.

Purlife knows the critical relationship between Sleep and Fitness. We are open from 5 am until 9 pm. Whatever your sleep cycle, early birds or night owls, we have a place for you to burn some calories after a good night of sleep.