Understanding Bodyweight

You are all probably going to think I'm neurotic, but I've really just got a curious mind.

I gifted myself a scale and have begun a study to understand how my weight fluctuates throughout the day depending on such activities as sleeping, eating, exercising, and lazying around. The preliminary results after only one week are fascinating.

It appears that I gain about one kilogram between waking up and going to bed (yes, I will be speaking in kilograms and not pounds; 1 kg = 2.2 lb). Then, during the night I lose weight, as is normal (Dr. Rosen for Psychology Today, 2009). The amount of weight I lose during the night depends on how long and deep is my sleep. I had difficulty falling asleep the first few days of the week because I was trying to sleep too early (compared to my holiday schedule), so I only lost a few decimal points during the night. Later in the week when I was able to go to bed late and sleep late, I lost closer to a kilogram during the night. So, if I gain one kilogram during the day and lose one kilogram at night, then my weight remains about constant.

Dr. Rosen says in the article "Lose weight while you sleep (for real)!" that a study found it was normal to lose about 1/4 lb per hour of sleep. If I multiply that by nine hours, that comes to 2.25 lbs, which is just about 1 kg. The study showed that people lost more weight during sleep than just lying around awake in bed. The cause of the weight loss during sleep is that REM sleep uses a lot of energy. I love to sleep and most nights I travel well away to dreamland (a sign of REM sleep). On those nights when I don't sleep long enough, like at the beginning of this week, I still lose 1/4 lb per hour, but over the duration of only a couple of hours, so the resulting weight loss is less.

So, what can I recommend to those of you trying to lose weight? Do some aerobic exercise to tire yourself out and then sleep for a long time.