I’ll never forget the words from my immunologist. It was the same speculation I heard a week earlier from my oncologist, right after a relieving conversation where she shared that I didn’t have cancer. If I’m being open, this was the third time I’d heard about my overachieving immune system, as the words echoed what my rheumatologist had suspected, as well. 

Now, before you think this is about some rare disease or a catchy headline, I’m sharing my story because it’s an important lesson for you and how you can protect your health. In the face of coronavirus concerns and immune system hype, I’ve watched helplessly as supplement manufacturers have blatantly lied about the realities of “boosting” your immunity.

For more than 20 years, I’ve suffered from inexplicably high fevers without any answers. My fevers would last for more than 60 days and run upwards of 104 degrees, forcing me into delirium, causing me to lose upwards of 30 pounds, and leaving me a shell of a human. 

Of all the things I expected to find out —  cancer, infectious disease, the plague (that’s what I called my mysterious illness) — a “boosted immune system” was the last thing on my mind. But, this became my reality once I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder.

If you want to really understand what you can do to work with the natural functions of your body, it’s important to know that a “boosted” immune system is not what you think and not what you want. Instead, it’s time to rethink sickness and disease — and follow these science-backed recommendations to help you stay as healthy as possible.

How Your Immune System Really Works

It didn’t take the outbreak of coronavirus to make you worry about your immune system. The multivitamin industry is a multi-billion dollar business. From Vitamin C gummies to antioxidant drinks and zinc lozenges, there’s no shortage of options that promise to protect your immune response.

The only problem is, like most supplements, there’s a lot more smoke (read: marketing) than substance. 

With a few exceptions, most vitamins and minerals won’t do anything for your immune system unless you are severely malnourished and deficient. And, we’re not talking about missing your daily fruits and vegetables. We’re talking about you living in a perpetual state of sickness.

The idea that you can pop a pill, drink a fizzy potion, chug kombucha, super-charge with billions and billions of probiotics, mainline IV cocktails, or do anything else to “boost” your immune system is…well…how can I put this clearly…

It’s bullshit.  

This is not doom and gloom or a haters anthem. Just the opposite. There are a few impactful things you can do (without spending money) to protect your immune system. But, there just happen to be many (many) more potentially useless options that don’t. 

A quick disclaimer: if you take multivitamins, Greens drinks, or other supplements for a variety of other reasons — or just to fill the gaps in your diet — there’s no need to stop if it works for you. This is just about what you can really do to help support your immune system.

Here are 8 truths that will change the way you think of your body, save you money, and  — most importantly — make it easier to course-correct and take care of yourself both before and after you get sick. 

Immune System 101

Your immune system might be the most impressive design of the human body. You have two different components that protect you from disease — the innate and the adaptive. 

Your body has a first line of defense, like your skin and mucous membranes. Once a disease passes through, that’s when your innate immune response kicks in. These the proteins and cells that fight against any disease or infection by increasing inflammation (yes, inflammation can be a good thing — more on this later) to create a protective barrier aimed at preventing the spread of any infection that has penetrated your body.

The easiest way to think about this is imagining the behind-the-scenes magic your body works after you get a cut anywhere on your body and you need to heal with simultaneously preventing the creation or spread infection.

On the other hand, the adaptive immune response is what you probably think about as your immune system. This how your body responds when you get sick and your body quickly works to recognize the disease, create antibodies or immune cells, and defeat the infection, bacteria, or virus. 

This function (and limitations) of your adaptive immune system is both what makes coronavirus so dangerous — and what makes your immune system so fascinating. 

If your body has no way of recognizing a disease (this is what makes a virus novel), then you’re going to get sick. But, assuming your body can overcome the disease and create immune cells to overcome the infection, your newfound immunity (the cells) stays in your body forever.

It’s why many doctors believe that it might be impossible for you to suffer from the exact infection twice. Once it’s learned, you’re protected. That’s also why you shouldn’t worry about being inside weakening your immunity. It’s not how your body works. 

It’s the same mechanism that allows vaccines to be effective. The disabled version of the bug is introduced into your body, you “learn it” and creates the methods to defeat it, and then you can use this newfound defensive mechanism to keep you safe. 

Therein lies the most important part of your adaptive immune system. You have to adapt to the disease, and to do so you must come in contact with it.

But, you can’t improve your immune system’s database without fighting infections first.

An Immune “Boost” Is Not Good For You

Your immune system can’t be easily manipulated. Anyone that tells you they can “boost” one part of your immune system is lying. Not to mention, doing so could be a massive mistake. 

Think about the story of my autoimmune disease. As my doctor’s made painfully clear, I have a “boosted” immune system. When I get sick, my body responds by triggering high fevers. This is a natural reaction.

Despite what you might think, a fever is a good thing. It’s your body’s way of fighting disease by heating up your internal system, making the illness uncomfortable and vulnerable so you can kill it off.

But, my reaction is broken. It’s a supercharged response that means my body heats up even hotter — and there’s no off-switch. So, I stay hot — long after the original bug has been killed, and my entire body suffers as a result. This, in a nutshell, is what happens with all autoimmune conditions (but not all result in symptoms like fevers).

Now, apply that same concept to your own body. When you think about boosting your immune system, you probably imagine being healthier, feeling stronger, and recovering faster.

But, when your immune system is actually boosted and working — much like my fevers — the “effectiveness” would result in you being miserable. 

Think about when you’re sick. The aches and fevers and even the snot (yeah, I just wrote snot) are not the symptoms of sickness; they are all a byproduct of your innate immune system at work.

The same goes for allergies. The itchy eyes and burning throat are your immune system reacting, learning, and fighting.

So, if you truly boost your immune system, you would intensify those uncomfortable symptoms. 

Safe to say, unless your body is in fight-mode, you don’t want an overactive (AKA “boosted”) immune system because that’s what causes autoimmune disorders, a disease to which there is no cure.

Instead, you want a healthy, functioning immune system that knows when to fight infection when it’s needed, can relax when it’s not, and is able to maintain a strong barrier against disease. To make this your reality, stop looking for boosts and start focusing on the things take make it harder for your body to function normally.

Stress Is The Original Immune System Killer

If you really want to help your immune system, start by looking at your stress levels. Whether you feel it or not, stress disarms your immune system and prevents it from working at its normal levels. 

As far back as the 1980s, breakthroughs in the stress-immune system relationship occurred in research that focused on students and how their immune systems were suppressed leading up to exams. The research found that your T-cells (the fighters that protect you against everything from viruses to life-threatening diseases like cancer) decrease in the face of stress. 

There was also fascinating research at Carnegie Mellon, which found that people who had less stress in their lives were better able to fight off the common cold when exposed to the virus. Similar responses immunosuppression was mimicked in other stressful situations, including studies that show people in difficult relationships heal slower if they suffer cuts or other wounds. 

So what’s happening? A great immune system is one that isn’t being dragged down by life (as opposed to “boosted” by pills). Better health starts with seeing big-picture immune sabotage, and (thankfully) they are all easy concepts to understand

Your immune system has an army of cells that keep you happy (T and B cells are your main immune fighting cells). And those cells produce an immune response that produces cytokines (friendly protein cells that help your body) and antibodies that destroy foreign pathogens. 

Unfortunately, stressors shut down your natural immune response, which means your fighter cells can’t function as they normally do to keep you healthy. 

If you need to destress, 10-15 minutes of meditation is a great place to start. If you’re new to it, try. an app like Stop, Breathe & Think, Calm, or Headspace.

Not feeling your inner zen? Here are two additional options with science on their side.

Stress-relief option 1: Take 2 deep breaths when you feel your heart racing, or before you answer a call or have a meeting. According to the Program on Integrative Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, the deep breath will make you sound more confident and reset your heart rate to reduce stress.

Stress-relief option 2: Grab coffee with your friends. Researchers at the University of Bristol in England discovered that when stressed-out men consumed caffeine by themselves, they remained nervous and jittery. But, when they caffeine-loaded as part of a group, their feelings of stress subsided.

Count The Hours You Sleep — Or Else

Sleep deprivation is the other part of the 1-2 combo that can knock out your immune system. If stress stresses out your immune system, then sleep deprivation exhausts your body into making mistakes that leave you vulnerable. 

A lack of sleep can prevent your immune cells from making their way to your lymph nodes (where they help you fight disease) or confuse your body and make it harder for them to create the right antibodies to fight back against infection.

How bad can it be? One study showed that regularly sleeping only 6 hours per night makes you four times more likely to catch a cold compared to sleeping 7 hours per night. And the risk gets even worse if you sleep fewer than 5 hours per night.

If you need help improving your sleep, here are a few simple guidelines that can make it easier to fall (and stay) asleep.

• Go to bed around the same time every night
• Time your sleep in 1.5-hour increments. This is a full cycle, so it will help ensure you don’t wake up in REM sleep, which could leave you groggy and tired.
• Sleep in a colder room than your preferred “room temperature.” Some research suggests between 60-70 degrees.
• If possible, exercise earlier in the day.
• Don’t consume alcohol before you sleep. (Yes, we realize this might be tough sometimes.)
• Limit screen time about 1-hour before you sleep.
• Clear your mind. Either watch a comedy, do a puzzle, or journal right before you sleep. This will trigger a part of your brain that will help “calm” your thoughts so it’s easier for you to fall asleep.

Movement Might Be The Best Medicine

If you go back in time just 10 years ago, many people believed that exercise actually weakens your immune system. Turns out, nothing could be farther from the truth. 

Whether you lift weights, run, cycle, or walk — any type of exercise, especially when combined with more sleep and less stress — is a key part of keeping your immune system functioning well.

Exercise works in many ways to make sure your immune defensive systems can act quickly and effectively, and it can even help offset stress or sleep difficulties. (This all assumes that you’re allowing for proper recovery.)

Recent research found that regular exercise:

• Helps the overall health of your immune system
• Decreases your risk of illness
• Helps mediate the correct inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses
• Delays the onset of age-related immune decline

Even better, a review of studies found that movement truly is medicine. From the study conclusion:

Contemporary evidence from epidemiological studies shows that leading a physically active lifestyle reduces the incidence of communicable (e.g., bacterial and viral infections) and non-communicable diseases (e.g., cancer), implying that immune competency is enhanced by regular exercise bouts.

When you exercise, your body recognizes stress. Even though it’s good stress, it’s still a strain on your body, so you produce neutrophils and lymphocytes (the T-cell and natural killer cells we mentioned earlier), which flow throughout your body to keep you strong, fight off invaders, and help create antibodies when necessary.

In other words, exercise helps spark more activity in these cells for about 3-4 hours, which means your body is both more likely to find and disable potentially harmful germs and diseases.

As an added bonus, the cells perform “immune surveillance” and patrol your body searching for infection.  

It’s likely the reason why people who exercise regularly (at least 5 times per week) miss nearly 50% fewer days from sickness than those who don’t. 

What’s more, exercise has been shown to help decrease stress and improve sleep. In other words, exercise might be the first domino to keeping you healthy because it’s insurance for the other two vulnerabilities (stress and sleep) that weaken your normal immune system function.

Here are bodyweight workouts that can help you get in your movement in any situation or location.

Protein Protects (Much More Than Muscle)

We’ve mentioned how protein plays a role to help keep your body safe. You might think of protein as the key ingredient in muscle building (it is), but — when you look at the bigger picture — protein plays a vital role in every cell in your body. This includes your immune system and helping create the cells that help fight disease.

Proteins are a key component of the very antibodies developed by your immune systems designed to keep you safe. Eating protein ensures that your body has enough of the raw materials needed to allow your immune system to respond to bacteria and viruses in your body.

Proteins (cytokines, in particular) also help ensure that your immune system doesn’t go overboard and start working too hard. It’s all part of a system designed to give your body what it needs and prevent it from targeting your healthy cells. 

High-quality complete protein options include:

• Dairy products, such as milk, cheese/cottage cheese, and yogurt
• Whey protein
• Eggs
• Seafood and fish
• Beef
• Chicken
• Bison
• Pork
• Pea Protein
• Soybeans
• Blended meals (beans and rice)
• Vegan protein powders with multiple protein sources

If You Supplement, Focus on Vitamin D

While no one supplement can even come close to providing the benefits of good sleep, less stress, and consistent exercise, there is one vitamin that appears to be more important than others. 

More research is still needed, but a lot of emerging data — especially since the COVID-19 pandemic — has suggested that Vitamin D deficiency is closely linked to immune system vulnerabilities. 

One study found that taking higher levels of vitamin D (in older individuals) led to a 40 percent decrease in respiratory infections over the course of a year. 

This makes sense because Vitamin D is thought to play a vital role in both your innate and adaptive immune response (although scientists are still studying to learn how it all works). And Vitamin D plays an essential part in producing antimicrobial proteins that fight back against sickness, especially in the respiratory tract. 

Plus, unlike many vitamins and minerals which can be produced by your body naturally or are rarely deficient, Vitamin D deficiency might impact more than 1 billion people worldwide. 

To support your body naturally, try to get about 15-20 minutes of sun per day. If that’s not happening, look towards natural food sources such as:

• Fatty fish rich in Omega-3’s, such as salmon or mackerel (or you can use cod liver oil)
• Whole eggs
• Mushrooms
• Milk fortified with Vitamin D

Otherwise, you can use supplements that offer at least 2000-3000 IU of Vitamin D3. (Just be sure to ideally look for products or brands that are NSF Certified for Sport.)

You Booze, You Lose (That’s Your Immune System Speaking)

You won’t hear us telling you to completely avoid alcohol (life happens, and that includes rough days and celebrations). But, if you’re consistently drinking in essence, then your immune system is the one that’s suffering.

If you look at the research (there’s a lot of it), too much alcohol — and binge drinking moments — prevent the normal functioning of your immune system, and it leaves you more susceptible to everything from upper respiratory infections to slower recovery from cuts and muscle injuries.

And, to add insult to injury, it might also alter your gut microbiome in a way that weakens your immune system. 

If you find yourself drinking every day — or drinking too much when you go out, take the old 1-2-3 method to establish more control.

• Step 1: Carve out non-drinking days. This is a commitment and a way to create guardrails and build habits. (If you know you drink every Friday night, don’t start by removing that day. Make it easy to succeed and build from there.)
• Step 2: Remove alcohol from your home. Just like a dieter who struggles with dessert, increasing the difficulty of accessibility makes it easier to drink less.
• Step 3: Track your drinks, so you can hold yourself accountable and be honest about how much you’re drinking and how much you need to cut back.

If you love technology, you can try out the Less Drinks app and see if that helps.

The Bottom Line: How to Protect Your Immune System

Remember, no matter how well your immune system functions, if you come in contact with a novel pathogen or virus, you still might get sick. In situations like battling COVID-19, your best line of defense is being smart about your social contact, avoiding touching your face, and washing your hands frequently. 

And, while you can’t prevent yourself from getting sick or boost certain aspects of your immune system, you can be sure to do the little things that won’t weaken your immune system or leave you unnecessarily vulnerable. 

If you need help creating a plan designed for your lifestyle, check out our online coaching program. Simply fill out an application, and you’ll be assigned 2 coaches who will assess your exact needs, create habits that are easy to master, and build a customized plan that will upgrade your fitness and nutrition.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Why Boosting Your Immune System Makes You Feel Sicker appeared first on Born Fitness.

It’s the type of confusing one-liners from the medical community that make your head spin and question science. So, where’s the healthy option?

While this might seem like a cruel joke, it’s exactly what British researchers (and several others) found when analyzing the sleep patterns of more than 1 million people, across 27 different studies.

The research—thankfully—is misleading. (And just one more reason to never put too much into eye-catching headlines.) The studies were correlational, and did have an direct cause between sleep and death. And yet, the number of people that suffer from sleep problems is increasing.

And more important to you, it opened up discussions and research on the importance of how you sleep. While getting enough rest is important, no number is perfect for everyone, which is why sleep quality is essential for every aspect of your recovery.

You see, poor quality sleep (whether it’s too much or too little) can set you up for a variety of health problems ranging from insomnia to depression and even cardiovascular disease. And it’s these health issues that will cause you problems.

While you might be trying to do everything right—not drinking alcohol before bed, avoiding late night technology, sleeping in a colder room—chances are you’re still missing out on some not-so-obvious behaviors and decisions that could be harming and disrupting your sleep.

Poor Alarm Clock Management

Ever wake up after a seemingly great night of sleep—say 10 hours—and still feel exhausted? The problem is actually very common. Sleeping is supposed to be a thoughtless process, but it turns out that spending more time thinking about how you sleep can have a life-changing impact on your restfulness.

Most people arbitrarily set their alarm for when they need to wake up.

What you really should do?

Time when you body wants to wake up. After all, grogginess and feeling refreshed isn’t necessarily caused by how many hours you sleep, but instead by the number of complete sleep cycles you enjoy, according to research published in Applied Cognitive Studies.

When you sleep, you go through 5 different cycles, with the final phase being REM sleep—or the period when dreams occur.

During phase 1 your vital signs are closest to being awake, and during stage 4 you’re in your deepest sleep, with your heart rate and blood pressure dropping by as much as 30 percent. Each 5-phase sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes.

So what happens when you wake up during your deep sleep? It’s probably how you feel every Monday. Tired. Exhausted. Trouble to concentrate. This is known as sleep inertia, and a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that morning grogginess could be a bigger impairment than not sleeping all night. (Not that we need to tell you; coffee is popular for reason.)

Your solution is timing your sleep so that you don’t wake up during the wrong portion of a sleep cycle. A good rule of thumb is aiming for 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep per night. If you must sleep less, sleeping 6 hours might prove to be more restful than 7 because you’re more likely to wake up in the first phase of sleep as opposed to a jarring alarm in the middle of your REM sleep.

Eating Right Before You Sleep

While you might know eating carbs at night isn’t a bad thing, it’s important to know when you should have them. Eating too close to your sleep can offset the benefits of a carbohydrate- based meal because after you eat, a protein called “c-peptide” is created to help insulin do its job and store nutrients.

Only one problem: c-peptide is linked to lower levels of melatonin, the hormone that helps you sleep.

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, night snacks hurt your overall sleep quality, meaning it’s best to separate sleep and your final meal of the day by 1-2 hours.

The Vitamin D Paradox

You probably know Vitamin D as the “sunshine vitamin” and for it’s numerous health benefits. These days, you’ll be hard pressed to find a doctor that won’t prescribe Vitamin D, especially during the winter.

But not having enough Vitamin D in your system can also cause sleep problems and daytime sleepiness. That was the findings of scientists at Louisiana State University who discovered the link between low Vitamin D and people with sleep problems—and we’re not just talking about some restless. Lack of vitamin D could be linked to sleep disorders, such as insomnia or sleep apnea.

Naturally, you might assume that you should pop a few Vitamin D pills before you go to sleep, but that would actually harm your sleep.

Remember, Vitamin D is produced in sunshine, meaning it’s an indicator of light and daytime. So when you take Vitamin D, it decreases melatonin levels. In some experimental trials, taking Vitamin D at night decreased REM sleep and the number of hours in nighttime slumber.

Your best bet is to supplement with Vitamin D first thing in the morning or during the afternoon. Research shows that a safe dosage is between 2,000 and 4,000 IU, preferably from Vitamin D3.

The Sunshine-Sleep Effect

Just because you take Vitamin D doesn’t mean you should stop going outside. Sleep is a result of your natural circadian rhythms, which are reactions to knowing when you should be awake and when you should be asleep.

Think about it: The reason you’re supposed to turn off electronics before you sleep (a common sleep disturbance), is that those electronics emit blue light, which is similar to the light you’re exposed to during daytime. The blue light signals to your body that it’s daytime, which disrupts your natural production of melatonin and hurts your ability to sleep.

But your ability to fall asleep is dependent your body knowing that it’s time for bed. When the sun is out, you need to see it. It builds a more natural daytime circadian cycle of light, meaning that when it’s dark your body is more prone to fall asleep naturally, without any aids, pills, or noise machines.

To create a longer daytime circadian cycle—and thus triggering a quicker release of melatonin when it’s dark—try to see experience sunlight as early as possible in the early morning, such as going for a quick walk or step outside after you awaken.

The Hydration Equation

Good hydration is an essential component of your health, but too much drinking before you sleep can severely disrupt a restful night of sleep, and even cause a disorder known as nocturia. Remember, you sleep in several cycles throughout the night. And when you need to go to the bathroom, it can disturb the most restful periods of sleep making you restless.

Your body is designed to hold your need to go for about 6 to 8 hours. But as we age, this ability begins to decline becomes of hormonal changes. So your best bet is create better practices that will help you sleep through the night regardless of your age.

Start by trying to remove liquids at least 1-2 hours before you sleep. And then, make sure that you try to make smarter drink choices. Beverages like coffee or tea can trigger a great need to go. And while a little alcohol might appear to help you sleep faster, it will wake up you up sooner and keep you up, as it’s a powerful diuretic.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Solve Sleep Problems: Solutions to Better Rest and Recovery appeared first on Born Fitness.

Each email included my mom’s one-of-a-kind sentiment, and then linked to some study about how a lack of sleep will kill you. Despite my frustration, it’s easy to look back and see why my mom was so concerned. Back then, my typical day looked as follows:

• 5 a.m.: wake up
• 5-6 a.m.: breakfast and homework
• 6-7 a.m.: gym
• 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.: on campus taking classes, teaching classes, holding office hours, doing homework
• 4-6 p.m.: dinner and grading
• 7-11 p.m.: working the sports desk at a newspaper
• 11 p.m. – 1a.m.: homework and sleep

It was a breakneck pace and one that didn’t leave much time for anything, let alone sleep.

And yet, I found a way to function and perform—at least mentally—on a high level. Don’t ask me how; I chalk it up to the fact that the human body has a tremendous ability to adjust and knows when to rise to the occasion.

Only the joke was on me. Surviving on little sleep is not a badge of honor.

All that lost sleep was crushing my body in more ways than I thought. And while I found a way to stay fit while in grad school, it was an exception to the rule.

As I transitioned into my job at Men’s Health I maintained my 3 t0 4 hour sleep cycle and started waking up at 4:30 am to eat a huge breakfast (yes, back then I was a big breakfast eater), and then start my day.

Only a funny thing happened: I started gaining weight (not in a good way). My strength in the gym decreased. And, in general, I started feeling hungry all the time and craving more food.

While I still wake up between 4:30 and 5 am every day, I now prioritize sleep. It’s a topic that has fascinated me for the past 3 to 4 years, and that interest only intensified as I dug deep into the research for Engineering the Alpha.

The importance of sleep is so significant that you could easily argue it’s the most important factor in achieving the body you want. Before you snicker, you might want to take a closer look.

Sleep Controls Your Diet

The debate about the best way to achieve a healthy weight always revolves around eating and movement. If you want to look better, the most common suggestion is “eat less and move more.”

But it’s not that simple, or even accurate.

Sometimes you want to eat less and move more, but it seems impossible to do so. And there might be a good reason: Between living your life, working, and exercising, you’re forgetting to sleep enough. Or maybe, more importantly, you don’t realize that sleep is the key to being rewarded for your diet and fitness efforts.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 35 percent of people are sleep deprived. And when you consider that the statistic for obesity is nearly identical, it’s easy to connect the dots and discover that the connection is not a coincidence.

Not sleeping enough—less than seven hours of sleep per night—can reduce and undo the benefits of dieting, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

In the study, dieters were put on different sleep schedules. When their bodies received adequate rest, half of the weight they lost was from fat.

However when they cut back on sleep, the amount of fat lost was cut in half—even though they were on the same diet. What’s more, they felt significantly hungrier, were less satisfied after meals, and lacked energy to exercise. Overall, those on a sleep-deprived diet experienced a 55 percent reduction in fat loss compared to their well-rested counterparts.

Poor Sleep Changes Your Fat Cells

Think about the last time you had a bad night of sleep. How did you feel when you woke up? Exhausted. Dazed. Confused. Maybe even a little grumpy?

It’s not just your brain and body that feel that way—your fat cells do too. When your body is sleep deprived, it suffers from “metabolic grogginess.”

The term was coined by University of Chicago researchers who analyzed what happened after just four days of poor sleep—something that commonly happens during a busy week. One late night at work leads to two late nights at home, and next thing you know, you’re in sleep debt.

But it’s just four nights, so how bad could it be? You might be able to cope just fine. After all, coffee does wonders. But the hormones that control your fat cells don’t feel the same way.

Within just four days of sleep deprivation, your body’s ability to properly use insulin (the master storage hormone) becomes completely disrupted. In fact, the University of Chicago researchers found that insulin sensitivity dropped by more than 30 percent.

Here’s why that’s bad: When your insulin is functioning well, fat cells remove fatty acids and lipids from your blood stream and prevent storage.

When you become more insulin resistant, fats (lipids) circulate in your blood and pump out more insulin. Eventually this excess insulin ends up storing fat in all the wrong places, such as tissues like your liver. And this is exactly how you become fat and suffer from diseases like diabetes.

Lack of Rest Makes You Crave Food

Many people believe that hunger is related to willpower and learning to control the call of your stomach, but that’s incorrect. Hunger is controlled by two hormones: leptin and ghrelin.

Leptin is a hormone that is produced in your fat cells. The less leptin you produce, the more your stomach feels empty.

The more ghrelin you produce, the more you stimulate hunger while also reducing the amount of calories you burn (your metabolism) and increasing the amount fat you store. In other words, you need to control leptin and ghrelin to successfully lose weight, but sleep deprivation makes that nearly impossible.

Research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinoloy and Metabolism found that sleeping less than six hours triggers the area of your brain that increases your need for food while also depressing leptin and stimulating ghrelin.

If that’s not enough, the scientists discovered exactly how sleep loss creates an internal battle that makes it nearly impossible to lose weight.

When you don’t sleep enough, your cortisol levels rise. This is the stress hormone that is frequently associated with fat gain. Cortisol also activates reward centers in your brain that make you want food.

At the same time, the loss of sleep causes your body to produce more ghrelin. A combination of high ghrelin and cortisol shut down the areas of your brain that leave you feeling satisfied after a meal, meaning you feel hungry all the time—even if you just ate a big meal.

And it gets worse.

Lack of sleep also pushes you in the direction of the foods you know you shouldn’t eat. A study published in Nature Communications found that just one night of sleep deprivation was enough to impair activity in your frontal lobe, which controls complex decision-making.

Ever had a conversation like this?

“I really shouldn’t have that extra piece of cake… then again, one slice won’t really hurt, right?”

Turns out, sleep deprivation is a little like being drunk. You just don’t have the mental clarity to make good complex decisions, specifically with regards to the foods you eat—or foods you want to avoid.

This isn’t helped by the fact that when you’re overtired, you also have increased activity in the amygdala, the reward region of your brain.

This is why sleep deprivation destroys all diets; think of the amygdala as mind control—it makes you crave high-calorie foods.

Normally you might be able to fight off this desire, but because your insular cortex (another portion of your brain) is weakened due to sleep deprivation, you have trouble fighting the urge and are more likely to indulge in all the wrong foods.

And if all that wasn’t enough, research published in Psychoneuroendocrinology found that sleep deprivation makes you select greater portion sizes of all foods, further increasing the likelihood of weight gain.

The bottom line: Not enough sleep means you’re always hungry, reaching for bigger portions, and desiring every type of food that is bad for you—and you don’t have the proper brain functioning to tell yourself, “No!”

Poor Sleep Weakens Your Workouts

Unfortunately the disastrous impact spreads beyond diet and into your workouts. No matter what your fitness goals are, having some muscle on your body is important.

Muscle is the enemy of fat—it helps you burn fat and stay young. But sleep (or lack thereof) is the enemy of muscle.

Scientists from Brazil found that sleep debt decreases protein synthesis (your body’s ability to make muscle), causes muscle loss, and can lead to a higher incidence of injuries.

Just as important, lack of sleep makes it harder for your body to recover from exercise by slowing down the production of growth hormone—your natural source of anti-aging and fat burning that also facilitates recovery. This happens in two different ways:

1. Poor sleep means less slow wave sleep, which is when the most growth hormone is released.
2. As previously mentioned, a poor night of rest increases the stress hormone cortisol, which slows down the production of growth hormone. That means that the already reduced production of growth hormone due to lack of slow wave sleep is further reduced by more cortisol in your system. It’s a vicious cycle.

If you’re someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy exercise, not prioritizing sleep is like getting a physical examine with your father-in-law as the investigating physician: It will make something you don’t particularly enjoy almost unbearable.

When you’re suffering from slept debt, everything you do feels more challenging, specifically your workouts.

Sleep: The Instant Health Boost

The connection between sleep and weight gain is hard to ignore. Research published in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology found that people who are sleep deprived are a third more likely to gain 33 pounds over the next 16 years than those who receive just seven hours of sleep per night.

And with all of the connections to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and cognitive failure, the need to sleep goes far beyond just looking better and seeing results from your diet and exercise efforts.

While there’s no hard number that applies to all people, a good rule of thumb is to receive between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, and to make sure that one poor night of sleep isn’t followed up with a few more.

It might not seem like much, but it could make all the difference and mean more than any other health decision you make.

READ MORE: 

Solving Sleep Problems: Non-Obvious Solutions to Rest and Recovery

Eating at Night Does Not Make You Fat

Want to Burn More Calories? Add This to Your Fat Loss Plan

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post How to Lose Weight: Why Sleep Can Make You Fat appeared first on Born Fitness.

If you are like most people who struggle with their weight or simply have difficulty looking the way you want, odds are you have an eating problem. And it’s not necessarily that you eat the wrong foods—it’s that you eat too much.

Ok, so that’s the obvious part. But why do you eat too much? It’s clearly a hunger issue, but one that confuses most people. Whether you wake up needing food, are scavenging for snacks at work, or come home famished, your stomach seems to be in perpetual starvation mode no matter how much you eat.

One night of insufficient sleep (less than 6 hours) triggers an area in your brain that is involved with your need to eat.

The problem might not be your appetite, but rather a big issue happening behind the scenes and beyond food selection.

Recent research has found out one of the main reasons why you’re always hungry, and it has nothing to do with what you are putting in your mouth.

The problem is how you’re sleeping.

Research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that a lack of sleep impacts your brain in a way that pushes you towards a “see food” diet, which explains why you always want to eat.

Just how bad is it? Only one night of insufficient sleep (less than 6 hours) triggers an area in your brain that is involved with your need to eat.

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. A lack of sleep also increases ghrelin, a hormone that increase appetite, while decreasing leptin—the hormone that keeps you feeling full. This is what allows you to keep on eating…and eating…and eating…even as you put more energy (food) into your body. The topic is something that plagued hundreds of test subjects in Engineering the Alpha.

It’s mind control, and you have no solution other than to get more rest, or be forced into a world where you desire more food when you don’t need it.

It might sound crazy, but sleep really can—and will—help reduce your physiological need for food. And while that’s not the only thing driving hunger, it can make a big difference.

Eat the Way You Want

If you want personalized help controlling your hunger and eating the food you love, you can work directly with a Born Fitness coach. Whether you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle, you’ll receive 1-on-1 coaching and a catered plan.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Why Am I Hungry All the Time? appeared first on Born Fitness.