Waking up Early is an Important Factor in Being Healthy and Losing Weight

Q: 1. I am a 16-year-old girl I sit up to 2 or 3 a.m. working on the computer or watching T.V. I wake up at 12 noon and just eat lunch directly. I want to lose weight, will this kind of timing have a bad effect on weight reduction?

A: 1. During these past weeks 2 girls have visited my diet counselling clinic with exactly the same time table. One is 16 years of age and 101 kgs the other 5ft in height, 15 years of age and 80 kgs.

Weight Reduction is not achieved by skipping meals and not eating but by eating all meals at the right times as well as by eating plenty of fibrous fruits and salad in between.

Weight Reduction is not achieved by starving and being hungry and weak but by eating the right amounts of the right foods, being filled and content with them and thereby resisting and not eating fatty foods.

The next big issue is to understand something called Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the basal energy that your body requires to support normal body functions even while at rest like breathing, heart beating, maintaining body temperature, kidney function, etc. This rate varies from person to person and is affected by various factors.

When sleeping the rate is at its lowest. It is also low in the late evening at the end of the day when the body is tired and ready to go to sleep. I would like to use arbitory figures to explain this more. While sleeping the BMR is at speed 1. When you awake at 7 am it goes to speed 2 and is at speed 2 all through the day.

When you eat food during digestion the speed goes up to say 2.5, if there is a lot of fiber (whole cereals, pulses, raw vegetables, fruits, etc.,) it may also go to speed 3.

If you are engaged in a physical activity it may rise to speed 5 or 6 during that period and if you have been in that activity for 20 min (say a brisk walk) then when you stop it remains high, about speed 4 for the next 2-3 hours.

In the late evening and night the speed will be only 1.5 . When you sit up late say 10 p.m. - 2 a.m, there is not much activity going on and it is almost like sleeping. Then the normal routine is to rise at 7 a.m. So you are at speed 1 from 10 – 7 am, 9 hours. Then you rise and are moving about at speed 2 – 2.5 or 3 all through the day.

But if you are sleeping till 12 you have been at speed 1.5 & 1 for 14 to 15 hours. This is very dangerous in terms of weight control so anybody wanting to lose weight must reschedule their life style.

I would suggest that you go to bed latest by 10 or 11pm. If you want to stay up to study or for any other reason it should not be beyond 12 midnight. Even if you slept at 12 you need to try and wake up by 7 or 8 am latest. If you are still tired, take a 20 – 30 minutes’ nap in the afternoon but you must wake up in the morning.

Please note 1-2 hours’ naps (in the afternoon) are not recommended as your metabolism goes down to speed -1 at that time and that is a disadvantage to weight loss.

When you rise early and eat breakfast you are again raising the metabolism so please do not skip this meal. Digestion of food raises the metabolism.

When you exercise twice a day it is a great advantage as twice a day the metabolism is going up to speed 4 & 5. So we recommend a 25 – 30 minutes’ walk in the morning and evening to get the most efficient weight reduction.

Once again the old saying holds good. Early to bed and early to rise makes you healthy wealthy and wise.

You can relax a bit in the holidays but not till noon. Holidays are a good time to knock off some weight. So get up, get out and get going young people!!!