Are you ready to sleep away those extra pounds?
A new study from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland describes how high levels of stress and inadequate sleep can keep people from losing weight, even when they are following a diet.
Study authors say that those who get 6-8 hours of sleep and moderate the stress in their lives are most successful when they try to lose weight.
The study included 472 obese adults who both reduced their caloric intake by 500 calories and exercised 3 hours per week. The researchers found that proper amounts of sleep and healthy stress levels at the beginning of the trials were predictive of optimal weight loss.
“People who are healthy and vital tend to be healthy and vital not because of any one factor, but because of many. And the factors that promote health — eating well, being active, not smoking, sleeping enough, controlling stress, to name a few –promote all aspects of health,” said study author Dr. Charles Elder. Story via HealthFinder.gov
Reducing stress will positively impact a number of health conditions – everything from blepharospasm (eye twitches) to peptic ulcers.