Some Gains Mean Losses
Gaining weight for many is as difficult as losing weight. Even maintaining bodyweight is often a struggle. Coaches and athletes spend a great deal of time with nutrition as the appropriate body composition is necessary for peak performance. Nutrients, caloric intake and exercise are all prescribed. But even if you eat and exercise exactly as indicated by the experts and neglect sleep the results are surprisingly undesired.
Reexamining years of sleep debt studies scientists discovered in some of the previous research a higher urinary excretion of urea that is associated with proteolysis, the breakdown of muscle proteins. This was a red flag and a cause to consider again the conclusions of the literature.
In so doing scientists compared sleeping 5.5 hours vs. 8.5 hours while on a two week restricted caloric diet. Both groups lost similar amounts of body mass achieving their goal. But the sleep deprived population's decrease in fat mass was 55% lower than the better sleepers and the loss of muscle mass was 60% higher in the sleep deprived population. This means if an athlete achieves the goal of hitting a prescribed target weight following the proper caloric nutrient and exercise regime, yet does not sleep properly, their body composition actually has gotten worse.
Make sure you address diet, as well as, sleep to Get Strong.
