Among people with obesity who lost weight through a low-calorie diet, those who exercised regularly and slept well were more likely to maintain their weight loss over the next year, according to a new study presented at the 2022 European Congress on Obesity and described in an article at Medscape.
Sleeping well or sleeping longer — which can be two separate things, depending on how researchers look at the issue — has been linked to numerous health benefits, especially in people with diabetes. Sleeping for a shorter duration has been linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while having a better “sleep score” based on several factors is linked to a lower diabetes risk. Sleeping less is linked to higher levels of abdominal fat, while a longer sleep duration is linked to a lower caloric intake. Better sleep quality is linked to lower blood glucose levels after breakfast, and sleep disturbances are linked to a higher death risk in people with diabetes. Treating sleep disorders, on the other hand, may contribute to improved outcomes related to type 2 diabetes. Getting enough sleep may also reduce your risk for cognitive decline and dementia. While a number of factors may contribute to poor sleep, getting more exposure to daytime outdoor light is linked to improved sleep.
To get cutting-edge diabetes news, strategies for blood glucose management, nutrition tips, healthy recipes, and more delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our free newsletters!
For the latest study, researchers looked at data from a weight-loss trial in which 195 adults with obesity followed a diet plan in which they consumed 800 calories each day, and lost an average of 12% of their body weight over eight weeks. These participants were then randomly assigned to one of four groups to compare strategies for maintaining their weight loss during the next 12 months. The first group (49 people) received a daily 3-milligram injection of the weight-loss drug Saxenda (liraglutide), which is a higher dose of the same drug sold as the type 2 diabetes medication Victoza. The second group (49 people) received a daily placebo, or inactive, injection. The third group (48 people) received no injection but completed four exercise sessions each week, while the fourth group (49 people) received Saxenda daily and completed the exercise sessions.
Participants wore devices to measure their sleep duration both before and after completing the low-calorie diet phase of the study, as well as after 26 weeks and 52 weeks of the weight-loss maintenance phase. They also completed a questionnaire to assess their sleep quality at the beginning of the study, after the weight-loss phase, and at the very end.
Links seen between exercise, improved sleep, and weight loss
After losing weight during the initial eight-week phase of the study, participants’ average nightly sleep duration increased by 17 minutes, and their sleep quality score improved by 0.8 points (on a scale of 0 to 21, with a score higher than 5 indicating sleep disturbances).
After the 12-month weight-loss maintenance phase of the study, participants in the two groups that included exercise maintained the improvement in sleep quality seen after the weight-loss phase, while those in the groups that weren’t assigned to exercise saw their sleep quality get worse again — with an average difference of 1 point in sleep quality scores between the exercising and non-exercising groups. Whether or not participants received Saxenda had no effect on their sleep quality or duration. Compared with participants with a sleep score of 5 or lower, those who scored above 5 — indicating worse sleep quality — saw their body-mass index (BMI, a measure of body weight that takes height into account) increase by an average of 1.2 during the 12-month weight-loss maintenance phase.
When it came to sleep duration, participants who slept less than six hours each night, on average, saw their BMI increase by an average of 1.4 over the 12 months, compared with participants who slept an average of six to seven hours. Sleep duration was not linked to whether participants were assigned to exercise or to receive Saxenda.
The researchers concluded that regular exercise was linked to improved sleep quality among the study participants, and that both better sleep quality and longer sleep duration were linked to better maintenance of weight loss during the 12 months following the initial weight-loss program.
Want to learn more about weight management? Read “Tried and True Weight-Loss Techniques,” “Losing Weight Without Feeling Hungry: Eight Tips,” and “Seven Ways to Lose Weight.”
Want to learn more about sleeping well with diabetes? Read “Getting the Sleep You Need,” “Eating for Better Sleep” and “Feeling Fatigued: Here’s How to Fight It.”
