Lack of sleep can derail weight maintenance plans after diet

Research presented on Wednesday (4) during the European Congress on Obesity, in the Netherlands, provided more evidence of the importance of sleep in maintaining weight loss.

A group of scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark has shown that not getting enough sleep impairs attempts to maintain weight after dieting.

They analyzed 195 obese adults who had been following 800 kcal per day for eight weeks. In the end, they lost, on average, 12% of their weight.

Then, they were randomly assigned to four groups who would have different strategies for maintaining weight over the course of one year.

The first group receives a daily injection of a placebo (a substance that has no effect on the body); The second is a daily injection of 3 mg of liraglutide (a medicine used to treat obesity); The third group will perform four physical exercise sessions per week; The fourth is a mixture of liraglutide with physical activities.

During one year of the study, participants performed subjective assessments of sleep duration and quality. The researchers analyzed the results based on average sleep duration (less than or more than 6 hours per night) or quality, according to a pre-specified indicator.

Although all participants who initially lost weight reported an improvement in sleep quality, those who did physical exercise were able to maintain it.

According to the study, the weight of those who slept poorly was not maintained. Those who slept less than six hours a night had an increased BMI of 1.3 kg/m compared to those who slept more.

Professor Signe S. said.

Rather, it suggests that more research is needed in the future to show the true effects of sleep quality on weight loss.