Bella Adams
Slim in your sleep? It sounds almost too good to be true. But losing weight overnight works if you follow our nutrition tips and stick to the slimming plan during the day.
Slim in your sleep – fairy tale or reality?
Losing weight in your sleep sounds like a fairy tale: relax on your pillow, dream sweetly for a few hours, and wake up a few pounds overweight – preferably awakened by a kiss like Sleeping Beauty … well, that’s still a fairy tale.
Of course, you can’t sleep slim without doing something yourself. But anyone who has ever stood on the scales in the morning and looked in the mirror will certainly have noticed that they are not only a little lighter, but also feel firmer.
The lost weight to lose weight is initial but mainly due to the nightly water loss (a good 0.5 liters!).
Slim while you sleep – the theory
Our regeneration metabolism, on the other hand, is responsible for the firmer, fitter tissue: it “cleans” and repairs the cells that have been affected during the day and in which metabolic products are still “stuck” that have to be removed and disposed of.
To do this, our body needs above all rest and relief. Fat is the main source of energy for these activities. And that comes – hurray! – from the unloved fat cells: An advantage that you can use for your figure.
So if you make sure that your metabolism can do its job in peace at night, you promote …
- fat burning
- the lymphatic drainage
- the tightening of the connective tissue
Lose weight fast, but how?
If you want to lose weight fast, you need the right recipes and/or an intelligent diet, protein-containing foods, sufficient sleep, and relief of the digestive system.
In other words, the evening meal should be taken early enough and should not be too heavy, so that the body is not kept from its important regeneration work by digestive activity!
Healthy diet and exercise
But there’s more you can do even during the day. Through targeted diet and exercise, you can further assist your body as it works on your figure.
Detlef Pape, MD, a nutritionist, has developed the insulin separation diet for the slim-to-sleep formula. Since 1993 the internist works in its predominance center in meals with this concept.
With success: In twelve years thereby over 4000 participants decreased together by more than 30,000 kilos! The central importance of insulin as a “fat hormone” was confirmed.
Together with the sports scientist Elmar Trunz-Carlisi, the occupational physician Rudolf Schwarz and the HR manager Helmut Gillesen, he implemented the “Slim in Sleep” project with employees of the Cologne public utility company. The participants lost an average of 11.5 kilograms in five months.
Weight loss and nutrition – the perfect nutrient mix
The present slimming concept was then developed in teamwork from this study. The Pape diet is all about choosing the perfect nutrient mix for morning, noon, and night to keep the fattening agent insulin in check.
In the performance phase during the day, the body needs easily utilizable carbohydrates for this purpose. During sleep – and also during endurance sports – it relies on fat. This rhythm is determined by the daily alternation of light and dark. And the night is the perfect fat-away time.
So how can we use these rhythms – not only for mental fitness but also for figure and health? To do this, we should know what’s going on in our bodies.
The hormone insulin plays a key role here. It controls fat processing and storage and thus determines whether we gain or lose weight. It also transports other nutrients into the cells, where they are used to generate energy.
This is how diabetes can develop
When the cell has absorbed enough nutrients, it “shuts down”. It is then “insulin resistant”. However, since the nutrients are still in the blood, a kind of backlog occurs.
To finally force them into the closed cells, the pancreas produces up to double or triple the amount of insulin.
In this way, the body succeeds in piloting a small portion of the nutrients into the cells. But the large remainder stays in the blood and is disposed of by insulin into the fatty tissue out of necessity. If these faulty reactions become chronic, there is not only the threat of massive obesity but also the onset of diabetes.
Clever combination: The basics of the insulin separation diet
If you regularly combine high-fat foods with carbohydrates and protein – as with cream pies, salami pizzas, or hamburgers – you stimulate your pancreas to perform at its best.
Highly processed foods with a high proportion of simple carbohydrates have the highest glycemic index (Glyx) in themselves and trigger the strongest insulin response.
But Dr. Pape points out that combining carbohydrates with protein elicits an even stronger insulin response. That’s what the insulin score shows.
So to minimize the insulin response and the flooding of fat cells, he recommends meals that are either carbohydrate-emphasized or protein-emphasized.
Gentle exercise: every step counts
As with all long-term diets, you can’t do it without exercise. Again, the emphasis is on timing.
The building blocks of training are an endurance session in the morning, increasing your activity level throughout the day, and optimally a weight training session in the evening.
When it comes to endurance training, the heavier you are, the easier it is on your joints – walking, Nordic walking, cycling or swimming are optimal. If you don’t feel like going to the gym for weight training, you can go a long way with a simple theraband.
As a minimum sports expert, Elmar Trunz Carlisi defines an additional consumption of 500 calories per week by movement. That corresponds to about 30 minutes of endurance or strength training per day. The optimum would be 50 minutes (500 calories per week). Of course, not everyone can do this easily.
Your dream can come true
But try to make exercise a regular part of your weekly schedule. And switch to a more active lifestyle in your everyday life.
This includes taking the famous stairs, going for a walk during your lunch break, or simply getting up from your chair and going to your colleague in the office next door instead of calling him.
Regular exercise not only improves endurance and increases calorie consumption. It also ensures better insulin regulation and lowers the risk of diabetes.
In addition, the body produces more growth hormone overnight – so more fat is burned and more muscle mass is formed.
You can then benefit from this while you sleep! More muscle also means that you burn more calories when you’re lying on the sofa, completely relaxed. Sounds like a dream that could come true!
Fat Burning: Burn maximum fat!
With this strategy, you burn the maximum amount of fat – long after the sport. While you are already asleep, the kilos are still melting!
Fat burning while sleeping
During the night the body functions are shut down, and pulse and blood pressure decrease. The energy is used to maintain the systems. The metabolism switches from performance to repair and regeneration.
For optimal relief and restful sleep, the last meal should be three to four hours before going to bed.
The duration of sleep should be at least seven hours. Immediately after falling asleep, the immune system also becomes active. In order to cope with its nightly regeneration tasks, it sends tiredness signals so that we go to rest.
Important to know: The growth hormone is only active at night. This is another reason why sufficient sleep is necessary. Those who exercise in the evening additionally stimulate the formation of the growth hormone and thus increase the desired fat burning overnight.
In the picture gallery, we explain the exact body functions of the individual organs during sleep!
Do’s and Dont’s: Watch out, figure traps!
After 6 p.m. you can do a lot for, but also against the slimline. We tell you what’s important when it comes to bedtime snacks.
Do’s
- Off to the dark cell: Bedrooms should be as dark as possible because the production of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin is stopped immediately when bright light hits the eye.
- Fish in the evening: Protein-rich foods such as fish, lean meat, or cheese promote fat burning at night. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, block it.
- Closing time: Go to bed at a fixed time (preferably before midnight). Studies show Those who sleep less than 7 hours block the production of growth hormones and have weight problems more often.
Don’t’s
- Bacon thanks to booze: A glass of wine in the evening relaxes and improves sleep.
- But: Too much alcohol provides many calories, and additionally inhibits the nightly fat burning and the reduction of depot fat.
- Smoke-free to bed: Nicotine – no thanks! Cigarettes activate the circulatory system, worsen sleep, and inhibit important detoxification processes in the liver.
- Fat from sofa snacks: Nibbles and sweets with a high glycemic index, such as potato chips or fruit yogurt, push insulin production, stop the fat burning, and cause restless sleep.
