People who sleep short lose less fat on a low-calorie diet than people who sleep longer. This is shown by research by the University of Chicago.
For the study, ten men and women with overweight . slept in a sleep center. They did this in two periods of two weeks each. During each phase, subjects followed a low-calorie diet † In the first period they slept 8.5 hours a night, the second period 5.5 hours.
Results
In both cases, the men and women lost on average three kilos of weight † During the first phase, 50 percent of the candidates lost fat. In the second phase, only 25 percent lost fat. People who sleep short mainly lose muscle , instead of fat.
The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine †