Lose weight while sleeping: this formula calculates calories you burn

If you decide to lose a few pounds, diet and exercise are probably the first things that come to mind. And although they naturally also contribute to the result, another factor appears to have a lot of influence on your weight: the quantity and quality of your sleep.

Not only do you eat healthier if you sleep well but you also burn calories while you are in dreamland, but how much depends on person to person.

According to a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, you can estimate how many calories you burn during your hours in dreamland.

Calculates calories you burn

You do this by first calculating your basal metabolic rate (BMR) or the number of calories that your body needs at rest to function, and dividing that by 24, the number of hours in a day.

You can calculate your BMR with the Harris-Benedict formula that is based on your weight, height, age, and gender. This is the formula for women.

BMR = 655.1 + (9.553 x weight in kg) + (1.850 x height in cm) – (4.676 x age in years).

For a 25-year-old woman who weighs 68 kg and is 1.63 m tall, the calculation would look like this:

BMR = 655.1 + (9.563 x 68) + (1.850 x 163) – (4.676 x 25) = 1,490.

If you divide this number by 24, you will find that she burns approximately 62 calories per hour while sleeping.

And the more you exercise, the more muscle you build and the more calories you will burn at rest. 7 to 8 hours of sleep helps you to recover your muscles better.

“Lack of sleep makes it very difficult for your body to recover from exercise and to lose weight,” said personal trainer and nutrition specialist Holly Roser.

“At the same time, too little sleep can disrupt the hormones ghrelin, which gives you a signal when you’re hungry, and leptin, which controls your feeling of satiety. In other words: too little sleep slows down your muscle building, while it also increases your hunger feeling.”

So do you want to give your metabolism a boost and burn a few more calories? Then a good night’s sleep is now your partner in crime.