According to findings , obtaining your Z’s may help you reduce weight! A finding  showed that sleep may affect quantities of leptin — a hormone created by fat cells.

Leptin impacts body weight management in the hypothalamus by reducing appetite and burning fat stored in tissue. Also, the research hinted that there may be an “Optimal rest area” that helps the body regulate its weight.

This is a new and very exciting area of research which raises the possibility that lack of sleep may be an unrealized and potentially modifiable risk factor for obesity.

Having the right quantity of rest, along with modifications to nutrition and exercise might become an important prevention and treatment plan for weight

Americans rest one to two hours  per night than they have 40 years ago during which time obesity percentages have gone up.

Previous observations have raised the connection between deficiency of rest and leptin quantities. Leptin has a direct affect on the development and holding of fatty tissues in the body.

To get asleep easier and rest better, give  of these strategies a try:

* Eat a light, nutritional snack before sleeping.

* Take a hot bath prior to turning in.

* Don’t use your bed for different functions such as eating, studying or watching TV.

* Limit drinks that contain stimulants.

* Avoid alcohol as it can interrupt your sleep pattern.

* Arise at the same time daily … also on the weekends.

* Exercise often, but never too close to bedtime.

I decided to take both Saturday and Sunday and utilize them as rest and recovery days. I needed it and my body felt much better afterwords. I think I may continue to take the weekends off for a while just to ensure I’m allowing proper recovery time for my muscles.

The training aspect? I’m talking about is over training your body when your at the gym. Most people that fall into this category believe in the concept more is better, but in this case too much of a good thing can definitely be bad. Over training can keep you from making great gains almost as easily as not working out can. Why? Well lets break t hings down a bit, when your in the gym your working hard and building muscles right? Wrong! When you are training your actually damaging and breaking down muscle. When the muscle is being overloaded with weights little micro tears begin to occur throughout your muscle. This damage is whats necessary to cause the muscle to have to adapt to the stress loads that are being placed on them. When your performing an exercise in the gym your goal is to push the targeted muscle harder than its ever been pushed before. By doing this you cause? damage to occur to that muscle that the body must repair and rebuild. Rather than just replace only the damage muscle with more muscle exactly the same as it was before, your body adapts. It does this by rebuilding and adding more muscle fibers and making them stronger to ensure that the same amount of stress will not produce the same results again.

If you continue to damage the muscles over and over without giving the body the proper time to repair them you risk training them when they are in a weakened state. This can lead to injury or greater muscle damage that’s just too much for your body to fully repair. That’s why when your body is in a state of repair you must rest and recover for long enough to give your body the ability to fix the damaged muscle. Now this does not mean you can’t go to the gym the next day after a workout, but rather you need to avoid placing stress on the same weakened muscles. So if you trained chest one day you would not want to train it again for forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Now every once in a while it is also beneficial to take a few back to back days off from the gym all together and really give your body complete rest. That’s what these last few days have been for me although forced, they have been much needed and my body will definitely appreciate them.

If you find your self feeling overly fatigued, sore, and possibly even losing the desire to go to the gym , a few days off could be exactly what your body needs. Listen to it and you will be surprised with the results and progress? that can come from taking it easy for a few days. Do whatever it takes to just relax and rest. If your like me and really addicted to the gym this maybe harder than it sounds. You may even have to result to drastic measures such as handcuffing your self to the bed or flattening your tires(although neither are highly recommended)to keep from going into the gym. So remember you don’t grow while your in the gym training, the real growth takes place at home when your nowhere near the gym or any weight equipment.