A study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics shows that teenage girls who go to bed later are more likely to gain weight than girls of the same age who go to bed earlier. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. If we can prevent our children from becoming obese, we could prevent them from adopting associated health issues as well. Not only does obesity bring various health issues but weight gain, in general, can be extremely stressful for many people, especially teenage girls. Some girls even starve themselves to reduce weight but this is unhealthy.
The Study
For the study, researchers from Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and other institutions analyzed a total of 804 adolescents, 418 girls and 386 boys between the age of 11 to 16 years. The teenagers participated in a questionnaire on their sleep habits and they wore a wrist device that tracks movement called an actigraph. Researchers measured the participants’ waist size and calculated their proportion of body fat using a technique called dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry.
Additionally, they estimated the teens social jet lag, which is the difference between their weeknight and weekend bedtimes. What the researchers found, was those who stayed up far later on weekends than weeknights were considered to have high social jet lag.
Conclusion
The girls that stayed up later had an average 0.58 cm larger waist size and a 0.16 kg/m2 increase in body fat. While each hour of social jet lag resulted in the girls’ waist size increasing up to 1.19 cm and a 0.45 kg/m2 increase in body fat.
Then the researchers statistically adjusted other factors that might have influenced weight, such as sleep duration, diet, physical activity, and television viewing. After adjusting the factors, the associations were reduced but still remained. As for the boys, the researchers found slight associations between the measures, waist size and body fat in boys but they were not statistically significant.
Finally, the researchers concluded that by improving sleep schedules it could help prevent obesity in childhood and adolescence, especially in girls.
Other Causes Of Weight Gain
- Watch your calories. Keep a check on the calories you consume each day, don’t over do it. Having excess food and calories will lead to weight gain.
- Skip sugar. Adding too much sugar to your diet will make you gain weight. Cutting sugar out completely will help you reduce weight. Sugar is notoriously hidden in many foods, so make sure to check all the ingredients.
- Stay active. If you are spending hours sitting all day then there’s no way for you to burn calories. Skip being lazy and keep moving throughout the day, even if it means cleaning your house or gardening. Any kind of activity will help you lose weight. Lying around watching TV or on your computer for hours will also lead to weight gain. The ideal activity would be running around the block every day or riding a bicycle which would certainly yield the best results for losing weight and good health.
- Eat healthily. Stay away from processed foods, fried foods, heavy breads, creamy pastas, and junk food. All of these things will make you gain weight. Instead, eat vegetables, boiled chicken, fish, fruits and quinoa.
