It might seem to be the ultimate counter-intuitive fitness message you have ever received but recent research suggests that to lose more weight you need to probably get more sleep – even if it means you get less real “physical” activity during the day:

Short sleepers tended to have greater difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep. Tests found suffering sleepless nights can disrupt natural hormonal balances. This can reduce levels of the ‘hunger hormone’ leptin, causing people to eat more. [Daily Mail]

14 volunteer nurses at the Walter Reed Medical center in Washington D.C. were studied by analyzing their sleep activity with the help of arm bands that measured their vital signs. Amazingly, the short-sleepers had a significantly higher BMI than the long-sleepers even though the heavier nurses walked more during the day and expended more calories.

The science behind this apparent correlation is still being investigated:

Chief investigator Dr Arn Eliasson said: ‘Primarily, we want to know what is driving the weight differences, and why sleep and weight appear to be connected.’ Stress may also play a role in both reducing the length and quality of sleep and increasing eating and other weight gain behaviours. [Daily Mail]

It’s likely, the article says, that stress and disorganization among the sleepy individuals cause them to overeat leading to weight-gain even if they do more physical activity.

How many hours of sleep did you get last night?

Right in line with the classic case of fatness vs fitness an Associated Press poll has recently uncovered that women continue to value their physical appearance more than their physical wellbeing. Things like height, weight and appearance trumped any concerns these women might have for factors that could affect their risks for life-threatening diseases like heart disease and diabetes:

“The priorities are flipped,” says Dr. Molly Poag, chief of psychiatry at New York’s Lennox Hill Hospital.
She points to women athletes as much better role models than supermodels: “There’s an undervaluing of physical fitness and an overvaluing of absolute weight and appearance for women in our culture.” [MSNBC Health]

When about a 1000 women were surveyed for this study, the results speak loudly about the state of understangding with regard to risk-factors for disease. About half the women did not like the way they looked, but only a third thought their physical condition needed improvement. Even fewer were eating the full recommended servings of fruits and vegetables or even exercising the minimum recommended duration of about 2.5 hours a week.

What is unfortunate is the large number of women, who are probably already quite healthy, still trying to lose weight excessively in a misguided attempt to reach a “magic weight” or look like some supermodel on TV. This is obviously counter-productive:

Eating disorders aside, normal-skinny doesn’t automatically mean healthy, stresses University of Houston sociologist Samantha Kwan, who studies gender and body image.
“Someone who is fat or even overweight can be healthy if they have a balanced diet and are physically active,” Kwan says. “Our culture really does put a lot of pressure on women to look a certain way,” taking precedence over health measures. [MSNBC Health]

Do read the full news item to get the facts and understand why fitness is more important than fatness.

In my three-part Glycemia series of posts, I wrote about the ill-effects of excessive quantities of sugar in the blood and how the body strives to maintain a steady concentration of blood-sugar. But even though the science is clear and the results unquestionable, humans in general and Americans in particular continue to consume massive quantities of sugar everyday either knowingly or unknowingly.

Hidden Sugars

How does one consume sugar “unknowingly” you ask? Check out MSNBC Health’s “Blood sugar can be anyone’s problem” article for the chilling answers and their implications:

The average American consumes more than a pound of refined sugar a week. It sounds unbelievable until you realize that sugar goes by more than 50 names and is an ingredient in virtually all processed foods, from your morning doughnut to the ketchup on your burger. [MSNBC Health]

It’s true. Sugar, in all its forms like High Fructose Corn Syrup,High Maltose Corn Syrup, Fructose, Dextrose, Maltodextrin and so on are now present in a majority of everyday grocery items from ketchups and jams to bread and soda.

What is High-Normal Blood Sugar?

The problem is that most people are not properly diagnosed with what is now being called “High-Normal” Blood Sugar. In his condition, the sugar level of the individual is not really in the danger level, but is still high enough to cause concern. But often, this is a condition that is just ignored during regular medical screenings or annual physicals. By one estimate 16 million Americans have “High-Normal” Blood Sugar levels according to the article.

So what are the blood-sugar ranges?

Normal blood sugar ranges from 60 to 90 milligrams of glucose per 100 milliliters of blood (mg/dl) before a meal. High-normal blood sugar is defined as 100 to 125 mg/dl (full-blown type 2 diabetes is diagnosed at 126 mg/dl and above). [MSNBC Health]

So, by simply categorizing patients as either diabetic or not misses this crucial “danger-range” patients who are on the brink of diabetes and deserve all the warning the can get. It is time to ensure all patients are effectively screened for “High-Normal” Blood Sugar to prevent a full-blown epidemic.