I was pretty shocked when I found out that lack of sleep can cause me to gain weight or prevent me from losing my weight at a faster rate.

I will save you from all the biology lessons that I’ve gathered from all the research done to say why the body reacts as such. In a nutshell, studies have shown that (and at common man’s language) – there are two kinds of hormones, one that causes us to eat more (A) and one that causes us to eat less (B). More “A” hormones will be produced and lesser of “B” when we lack sleep. The problem will keep spiraling south as we do it on a frequent basis. That is the biology part.

I reckon it will be better for me to share the benefits of getting enough sleep and that change in lifestyle by choice allowed me to lose weight quicker and maintain it. Also, to look great and fabulous day after day.

The following are questions for you to consider and hopefully they will help trigger some recollection of the effects of lack of sleep and why it leads to weight gain.

What do you grab, first thing in the morning, after sleeping past midnight and waking up at 7 in the morning for work? A made at home coffee with creamer or order big cup of double shot latte on your way to work?

While having coffee, would you also eat something from the fridge or order a something mindlessly at the counter to eat later?

How many more coffees with creamer would you have throughout the day?

Were you conscious of what you were putting in your mouth when you are so tired?

Were you leaving your friends’ timing for need of food to be yours as you were too tired to think?

The weight gain due to lack of sleep or a good night’s rest could lead to all these problems. It led to mine for a while when I wasn’t taking care of myself.

This is a progression of Tip #5. One tip that I follow strictly to lose weight and to maintain the weight lost is to eat only when I’m physically hungry.

So when are we eating when we are not physically hungry? Here are a few times of being enticed to eat when we are not hungry:

- When we salivate because we saw some nice cakes at the window display or we smell the delicious deep fried hot dogs round the corner. (Do you recall having resisted any temptations?)

- When we are thirsty (how many times we dunk a latte in preference to drinking just water?)

- When we are sad, angry.. .generally when we are emotionally unhappy. (Comfort food anyone?)

- When we habitually open the refrigerator to see if there are anything interesting for us to bite.

- When we lack sleep (Eat unconsciously due to a confused state of mind)

I don’t know about you. I was surely guilty of the above.

So back to physical hunger. Our body will let us know when we are physically hungry. The rumbling of our stomachs will indicate that it is time to be in search of food. That is the best time to eat as our body is IN NEED of the food. No excess intake means no excess bulges later. Make sense?

Look out for the next tip when I will share with you on responding to different levels of hunger. Yes, that can help maintain your weight too!

So who said losing and maintaining your weight is tough?

Here are some questions that you may find useful to see if your eating habit is making you not lose weight:

1) Do you eat even it is lunch or dinner time when you are not hungry?
2) Do you eat in anticipation of skipping the next meal even when you are not hungry?
3) Do you eat more in anticipation of skipping the next meal?
4) Do you try to finish everything on the plate even though you are already full?

If your answer is yes to any of the four questions, then most probably your eating habit is causing you to not lose weight!

Animals in the wild, for example lions, are not overweight because they would hunt for food only when the need to feed arises. Other than that, they live mutually with the herbivores pretty peacefully.

Let me give you another example, babies. Babies cry for milk only when they are hungry. They stop drinking when they are full. But it seems that they are crying for milk quite a lot and yet… yes, they do not put on weight. And why is that so? It is because they respond to their natural response for food only. Their only communication to their mothers is through cries for milk.

Both examples show you that naturally we need to eat only when our bodies request for food. To put it simply – eat only when you are hungry and extra pounds will stay off.

How did we come to this?

We have developed regimental eating habits that were instilled in us through the people that we grew up with, basically adults in the house.

We will be taught to eat not because we are hungry but it is because it is time to eat.
We also tend to eat everything off our plate because we have been taught that it is “the right thing to do”.

Overtime, we lose our ability to sense when we are hungry. We eat according to structured time tables.

By eating when you are not hungry means you are introducing extra food to your body without your body needing it for sustain your activities. The extra food unutilized means it is going to stored as extra pounds for you to carry around.

Believe me, when you eat only when you feel hungry, you will see that your body will automatically let you know that it is in need for food.

Many of us eat too much as we are confused as to whether we need food or not. As we are growing up, adults around us will tell us that we need to eat as it is time to eat, though we really don’t feel hungry. This confusion to eat even when we are not hungry leads to us to not being able to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

It takes time to know our bodies natural responses. Just listen to it’s natural calls for food.

In the next few tips, I will share with you on why diets cause us to put on more weight and more tips on proper eating habits that will allow you to lose weight healthily and keep the weight off for life!

Word was that Elvis Presley had about 40 pounds of fecal stuff in his body when he died! That is really a very useful piece of trivia for all of us wanting to lose weight ones out there.

Imagine what it’ll do to your weight lose program (or imagine how much weight you will lose almost immediately) once this awful stuff is removed from your body!

The main reason why we store so much fecal matter in our body is really due to our diet – the lack of fibre in the foods that we eat and falling short of drinking sufficient amounts of water in a day.

Fiber and water combined helps remove fecal matter that is clogged up in our systems. This awfully nasty fecal stuff can really add up to your weight if it is not gotten rid off properly.

Flip a few books for reference if you are not sure of the kinds of fibrous foods available and you’ll find many delicious types to choose from. From there, you’ll see that there are lots of great foods with lots of fibre that you can find in your local grocery store.

The next thing to remember is to eat them in moderation – too much of a good thing is not good! I notice that most people have a tendency to overload on a good thing when I share with them tips to lose weight.

It is important to note that too much of fibre plus a shortage of water may not be such a good idea from my experience! The combination will still cause the fecal matter to stay clogged in our system ever longer! So please… do it in moderation!

So these are 4 tips that I’ve tried and tested to lose weight. They work!

Lose weight for life the healthy way!

Look out for the Next Article where I will share more tips with you!

Tip #2: Eat slowly so you know when you are full

Now, this takes time to master. I took about two weeks of mindful eating before I reconditioned my mind to eat properly.

Let’s face it, in this fast pace of life, we are pretty guilty on gobbling our food down too quickly.

The odds are – you will end up eating too much before you even know it!

Our digestive system takes about 20 minutes to send the message to our brain that it’s full.
What is going to happen within that window of 20 minutes? 20 minutes worth of food packed into our mouths, of course! To add to the problem, it is 20 minutes worth of food packed into our mouths speedily.

So please eat slowly and stop when you feel that you have enough.

Tip #3: Avoid drinking large amounts of water all the time

Next tip is on drinking water. Now, I know that drinking water is good. But do you know that drinking too much water all at once will cause more problems than you think?

Water weight is one of the main reasons that people look fat and bloated. Your body has a tendency to store water as it clings on to it just in case of emergencies. Loading a lot of water all at once will not do you any good. Your body will remove the excess amount of water taken just as fast.

Do you know that many competitive eating professional go through training by drinking huge amounts of water over a short period of time to stretch out the stomach? The effect of doing so is to increase their stomach’s capacity! Imagine what it will do to your stomach!

To bluff your body into thinking that it has more than enough water stored, you just have to sip sufficient amounts of water – many times of day. When your body has been “informed” that it has more than enough water, it doesn’t store excessive amount anymore. Thus, you can lose that bloated look eventually! Added plus is sipping sufficient amounts of water speeds up your metabolic rate and so you end up burning lots more calories!