5 rounds for time of:
20 strict ring dips
135-lb. thrusters, 14 reps

Sleep, Recovery, and Weight Gain

This past week, I spent six days traveling to Asia and back.  13 opeour plane rides, an 18-hour time change, and unfamiliar territory left my sleep habits in disarray.  Coming home on Monday night I hopped on the scale to find I was 4 pounds heavier than when I had left six days prior.  WTF?!  Frustrated, I kept harping on the fact that I had eaten really well over those six days.  I hadn’t overeaten, I had packed every meal and snack for me to eat on the plane ride there and back, and I had consumed enough water to hydrate a camel.  But still, four pounds appeared on my scale.

Frustrated and exhausted by the end of my first day back, I went to sleep at 6:30pm and woke up at 6:45am.  I hopped on the scale and TADA – I had lost four pounds.  That’s right, 4 pounds had magically disappeared from my skeleton in the course of twelve hours – while sleeping!

While I wanted to be surprised, I was reminded of how important sleep is to our health and wellbeing in addition to our body composition and recovery.  Sleep helps regulate our hormones as well as control hunger cravings and mental focus and attitude.

We don’t sleep enough.  We turn to the gym and diet as our main outlets for controlling weight and body composition.  But as you’ll see in the articles listed below, some more Zs will help our cause to a greater degree than we think.

Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss/Weight Gain – a basic overview but also a great website of sleep research and information

Sleep and Weight Loss with Dan Pardi – link to the video above.  LOTS of information here.

Waking Up to Sleep’s Role in Weight Control – Harvard School of Public Health article