As per the study, besides diet and exercise, sleep is an equally important factor if those extra pounds have to be shed off.
Mothers who snoozed five hours or lesser, daily six months after delivery were three times more susceptible to retaining baby fat as compared to those who slept for seven hours or more everyday.
Study details
For the study, researchers examined the sleep and weight retention patterns of 940 women from Massachusetts.
They found out that in the year following child birth, 124 of the women had held on to 11 or more of the pounds they had gained while they were pregnant.
Lifestyle affects loss of postpartum weight
Holding on to postpartum weight is an issue of serious concern for several women as it may result in long lasting increase in weight.
According to Finnish researchers, certain studies demonstrate that around 20 percent women retain a minimum of eleven pounds, six to eighteen months following the delivery.
Lifestyle aspects that play a role in hanging on to postpartum weight such as diet, work outs and sleep patterns have not been properly investigated so far, believe the researchers.
But the truth is that every mother is aware that the sleep pattern is upset in the first year after they give birth to the baby.
Dr. Sirimon Reutrakul who works as a clinical associate in medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center, remarked, “Sleep deprivation can cause changes in the levels of hormones
involved in appetite regulation.”
She added, “Keep in mind, though, that there are multiple factors involved in causing postpartum women to sleep less. These include just having a newborn, having other small children at home, possible postpartum depression, illness of the newborns, if any, work, etcetera.”
Another study being conducted
A professor and vice chairman of research in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Truls Ostbye, is presently heading a research that aims to encourage weight loss in women who become obese after childbirth.
Ostbye said that initial numbers from the study indicate that “women who sleep less at six weeks lose less weight from six weeks to 12 months”.
He added that the link between being overweight and sleep definitely existed “but it is as likely that less sleep is a result of obesity as the other way around.”
Erica P. Gunderson, an epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente, California, and a research scientist involved in the study termed short snoozing period as “an independent risk factor” for hanging on to baby fat.
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