Lack of sleep more likely to cause abdominal obesity

Sleep is very essential and a controlled study has found sleep-deprived young adults have provided the first causal evidence linking the lack of sleep to abdominal obesity and harmful visceral, or "belly" fat. The researchers claim this is the first-ever study evaluating the relationship between sleep restriction and body fat distribution, they've reported the novel finding that the expansion of abdominal adipose tissue, and especially visceral fat, occurred as a function of shortened sleep.

Study reported With sleep restriction vs control, participants consumed more calories, increasing protein and fat intake. Energy expenditure was unchanged. Participants gained significantly more weight when exposed to experimental sleep restriction than during control sleep, while changes in total body fat did not differ between conditions, total abdominal fat increased only during sleep restriction with significant increases evident in both subcutaneous and visceral abdominal fat depot.