Here’s a weird one: gammaHydroxybutyric acid (GHB).
Five years ago, I was diagnosed with the sole medical condition for which GHB was approved for therapeutic use: narcolepsy. After other medications started to fail, my doctor prescribed Xywav, the commercial version of GHB. I’ve been using it as directed for about a year. And I’ve lost about 30 pounds. I’m probably at an even lower body fat percentage (the metric I care about, not bodyweight) than the weight loss reflects because I began lifting weights three times per week at around the same time.
A comprehensive scientific understanding of all of the ways how sleep, sleep disorders, and GHB all affect health still eludes us, but enough correlations have been established to allow us to hypothesize without being too far afield, i think:
Correlation 1: 80% or so of narcoleptics struggle with healthy weight control
Correlation 2: 80-90% of narcoleptics have abnormally low levels of the neuropeptide orexin, which has been shown to control sleep, arousal, and appetite
Correlation 3: One characteristic feature of narcolepsy is an abundance of REM stage sleep, with a deficit of so called slow-wave stage III sleep compared to baseline.
Correlation 4: Stage III sleep is where a lot of beneficial physical restorative effects of sleep happen, like muscle repair.
Correlation 5: The therapeutic dose of GHB sends a person straight to stage III sleep. For narcoleptics, this restores the stage III sleep that they are lacking.
Putting it all together: quality sleep is important for maintaining healthy weight and neurological/physiological aspects that tie in, like satiety, appetite control, muscle repair, metabolism, etc. The specific stage of sleep that appears to have the strongest correlation with same appears to be Stage III. GHB artificially prolongs the amount of time a person is in stage III sleep, thus fortifying weight management.
As an aside, GHB is also noted to stimulate the indigeonous production of Growth Hormone, and before GHB was regulated as a recreational drug, it was banned by athletic organizations as a doping agent.
In no way do I suggest that off-label or illegal use of GHB is a safe, or even effective method of weight-loss for people who don’t suffer from a hypersomnia disorder. However, now that your curiosity has been piqued by the “weird” tip, it suggests a much more mundane weight loss tip that is probably just as if not more effective for neurotypical people: start a sleep log, and focus on getting the highest possible quality sleep you can.
Five years ago, I was diagnosed with the sole medical condition for which GHB was approved for therapeutic use: narcolepsy. After other medications started to fail, my doctor prescribed Xywav, the commercial version of GHB. I’ve been using it as directed for about a year. And I’ve lost about 30 pounds. I’m probably at an even lower body fat percentage (the metric I care about, not bodyweight) than the weight loss reflects because I began lifting weights three times per week at around the same time.
A comprehensive scientific understanding of all of the ways how sleep, sleep disorders, and GHB all affect health still eludes us, but enough correlations have been established to allow us to hypothesize without being too far afield, i think:
Correlation 1: 80% or so of narcoleptics struggle with healthy weight control Correlation 2: 80-90% of narcoleptics have abnormally low levels of the neuropeptide orexin, which has been shown to control sleep, arousal, and appetite Correlation 3: One characteristic feature of narcolepsy is an abundance of REM stage sleep, with a deficit of so called slow-wave stage III sleep compared to baseline. Correlation 4: Stage III sleep is where a lot of beneficial physical restorative effects of sleep happen, like muscle repair. Correlation 5: The therapeutic dose of GHB sends a person straight to stage III sleep. For narcoleptics, this restores the stage III sleep that they are lacking.
Putting it all together: quality sleep is important for maintaining healthy weight and neurological/physiological aspects that tie in, like satiety, appetite control, muscle repair, metabolism, etc. The specific stage of sleep that appears to have the strongest correlation with same appears to be Stage III. GHB artificially prolongs the amount of time a person is in stage III sleep, thus fortifying weight management.
As an aside, GHB is also noted to stimulate the indigeonous production of Growth Hormone, and before GHB was regulated as a recreational drug, it was banned by athletic organizations as a doping agent.
In no way do I suggest that off-label or illegal use of GHB is a safe, or even effective method of weight-loss for people who don’t suffer from a hypersomnia disorder. However, now that your curiosity has been piqued by the “weird” tip, it suggests a much more mundane weight loss tip that is probably just as if not more effective for neurotypical people: start a sleep log, and focus on getting the highest possible quality sleep you can.