My Big Needle Mover for Fast, Lasting Fat Loss

Want to know my big needle mover for fast, lasting fat loss? It has nothing -- and everything -- to do with the foods you eat and exercise you do.

The best thing you can do to stay lean and healthy involves a good night's sleep. I'm talking quantity and quality here. If you sleep eight hours, but wake up three times during the night to go to the bathroom, you're not getting high-quality sleep, and the repercussions can show up around your waistline.

If you think the worst aftermath of a crappy night's sleep is that you snap at your partner the following morning and make a few lapses in judgment during the day, think again.

Lack of sleep can create weight loss resistance because how you sleep directly impacts how much you eat and what kind of foods you eat. Whether you get a solid eight hours or a toss-and-turn six hours can determine whether you go face down in a high-sugar impact pastry washed down with a gargantuan latte.

Sufficient or substandard sleep also signals your body to either store fat or burn it for fuel because of its impact on hormones like insulin, leptin, and cortisol. Getting quality, uninterrupted sleep supports better fat-burning the following day. Sleep can even contribute to your degree of hunger. If you’re reaching for your coworker’s freshly baked chocolate chip cookies after you ate a substantial lunch, you might want to look at how well you slept the night before. 

Hormones play a huge part in this process. Ghrelin, a hormone that tells your brain to eat now, increases when you sleep poorly. Leptin, on the other hand, helps put the brakes on the brownie cheesecake. No surprise: When you don't sleep, you become more leptin-resistant.

Poor sleep also impacts insulin. Chronically elevated insulin makes it more difficult to burn fat. Long-term sleep deprivation can make your cells insulin-resistant which leads to higher fasting insulin levels. In fact, studies show even a partial night's sleep can make your more insulin resistant, setting the stage for obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Another study at the University of Chicago concluded even if you eat healthy and exercise, not getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night puts you at risk for obesity. In other words, poor sleep patterns can screw up even your best efforts to have the body you want.

Many people think, "If I cut back one hour of sleep, I can get that report finished, or a couple hours less sleep on the weekend to have drinks with the girls won't hurt me once in a while." Tempting though that might be, reality isn't pretty. Even one hour fewer of sleep can trigger hormonal chaos. You eat more, move less, make terrible eating choices, and exacerbate stress levels.

Is it any coincidence we’re simultaneously stressed and sleep deprived? When you’re stressed out, your body secretes more cortisol and adrenaline. Higher cortisol makes you better at storing fat, raises the set point for burning it off, and impairs digestion.

Your cortisol levels remain high for longer periods when you get less-than-optimal sleep. What ensues is a vicious cycle. High cortisol burns up your energy-assisting B vitamins, and you can't make the neurotransmitters you need to sleep well. This "Jeckyll and Hyde" hormone also lowers levels of serotonin, the feel-good hormone your brain eventually converts to melatonin for -- you guessed it -- good sleep.

The aftermath isn’t pretty. You sleep terribly so you hit the snooze button multiple times. You're too tired to make a protein shake, so you grab a low-fat (read: high-sugar impact) muffin and a large latte for that caffeine pick-me-up. By mid-morning, you're drowning in stress, dealing with a sugar crash, angry at everyone in sight, and finally say "to hell with it" and grab a doughnut a co-worker brought in.

Don't think you can just crank back the calories and do some cardio to make up for that sleep-deprived hormonal flux. If you want strong, sexy arms, pack in sufficient sleep, which helps your body repair, rebuild, and recover from the strenuous effort you put in at the gym.

Like vigorous exercise, sleep also increases human growth hormone (HGH). Let's say you got a pitiful five hours of sleep and scheduled your trainer for 6 a.m. You certainly won't be able to train with the intensity you would with substantial rest, particularly when you're yawning and wondering why that fourth cup of coffee never kicked in.

You also won't recover as well from a tough workout when you don't sleep well. You don't give your body the chance to repair muscle mass and you accelerate the aging process.

I hope you understand how crucial sleep becomes, yet I get it: putting the brakes on life and unwinding after a frenetic day can become a challenge.

That's why I want you to develop a sleep ritual that helps you relax, whether that includes soothing music, a meditation CD or a hot bath. Mine involves some chamomile tea, a hot bath, and a good (but not great) novel.

What one strategy would you add for a solid night’s slumber? Share yours below or on my Facebook page.

© 2015 JJ Virgin & Associates, Inc.