HOW TO LOSE BODY FAT ON THE LEGS, Part 3: Sleep For Increased Growth Hormone
Sleep to Get Lean
With all this talk of exercising, eating, and supplementing, you would wonder what role sleep could possibly play in the battle to lose body fat on the legs. The answer is simple – we make most of our growth hormone while we sleep. If your sleep is not adequate in duration, is disturbed, or is poor in quality, you cannot produce growth hormone to your full potential. If your hormone profile is compromised, so is your result.
Duration of Sleep
For most people, 7-8 hours is an adequate amount of sleep for day to day living. That is not to say that many people do not get less, especially here in New York City, but the reality of the physiological guideline does not change, no matter what your schedule is. Sleep 8 hours a night to give your body the time it needs to produce optimal growth hormone.
Sleep before midnight is especially helpful; I try to convince my clients to get into bed by 10 pm. We were not designed to be active at all hours of the night; we were designed to obey the laws of nature, and to be more active in the day. If you look at statistics, this fact is reflected in the lifespan of people with night jobs versus those individuals with day jobs. People who work at night do not live as long.
If you are a serious athlete or are in heavy training, you can expect to need more sleep – closer to eight hours. That is not to say that you cannot achieve your personal training goals without sleeping 8 hours, but the reason my clients achieve such great results is because they take advantage of every tool at their disposal to make progress. Adopt better sleeping patterns and reap the rewards, or fight against the work that you do in the gym – the choice is yours to make.
