The rising prevalence of obesity is a global public health concern. Numerous research has been conducted to determine the causes of weight gain and how our lifestyle choices contribute to it.
The researchers looked at health data from over 5,000 people, half of whom were men and half of whom were women, who took part in two rounds of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2011 and 2013. The participants in the study slept for an average of fewer than seven hours per night, resulting in an increase of around 12 grams of visceral fat mass overall.
Sleep deprivation may lead to Visceral Fat
The link between sleep deprivation and weight gain is becoming more and more clear. Science Direct released a study on the relationship between body fat distribution in mature individuals and sleep duration. The study found that lack of sleep causes visceral fat to surround vital organs and build up around the torso.
Visceral Fat
The most harmful type of fat is visceral fat, commonly referred to as “hidden fat”, which is accumulated deep within the abdomen and wraps around vital organs like the liver and intestines. This dangerous sort of fat can increase your risk of developing serious illnesses like type diabetes, insulin resistance, heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke, and more.
What Study says
The research discovered that sleep disorders and insufficient sleep may change neuroendocrine system activity, a key modulator of whole-body metabolism, suggesting that sleep deprivation may be a significant regulator of metabolic health. The researcher discovered that faulty motivational, cognitive, and reward processing takes place in a number of different brain regions.
According to the study, “In particular, appetite evaluation centers within the frontal and insular cortex that are implicated in food choice desirability assessment were blunted, with amygdala reactivity amplified at a subcortical level. Increased adiposity throughout the lifespan is linked with several metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.”