Shawn Stevenson, a metabolism expert and author, delved into the nitty gritty on the modern diet and sleep schedule on the Zoe podcast. Specifically, the expert warned people to be more aware of their “epi-caloric and epigenetic controllers”.
These are factors, both from your chosen lifestyle and your genes, that can influence how your body processes food and how it stores fat. He explained how targeting these controllers can drastically change your body weight, even if you keep your diet and activity levels exactly the same.
One particular factor he wants people to fix is their sleeping patterns. He highlighted a University of Chicago study, which saw participants getting eight and a half hours sleep lost “50% more body fat mass” than when they were sleep-deprived, getting just five and half hours a night.
Shawn explained it’s not just weight that was affected by this: “When they were sleep-deprived, they were losing more muscle. They were losing more of their muscle tissue, which is going to make you more metabolically unhealthy long term.”
The expert even claimed sleep could be the second “major controller” for metabolism just behind the food we eat. The expert dished out his top tip for ensuring you get more sleep and keep your metabolism in check, although he warned many people won’t like it.
He said: “My recommendation; give yourself a little bit of a tech curfew. Now, again, I know that we’re adults and we don’t like restrictions. Even the word curfew still brings up bad feelings for me, but giving yourself a little bit of a screen curfew.”
This is mainly because of the light being emitted from the technology, which tricks the brain into thinking its day time as humans have “evolved being connected to the 24-hour solar day”. The “artificial daytime” provided by technology suppresses the melatonin chemical we need for a good night’s sleep and increases cortisol, the stress hormone.
Shawn urged: “Every cell in your body is getting out of sorts and just trying to figure out what time it is.” However, he admitted it’s even difficult for him to turn away from the devices we’ve come to rely on in our day-to-day lives.
So he suggested replacing it with something you enjoy equally or even more than being on your devices. Shawn noted this will be “unique to you” but recommended reading, audiobooks and podcasts.