A recent study conducted by a team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has suggested that one should take proper sleep in order to achieve his goal of shedding weight.

It has been found by the team that one might not be able to lose weight if he is extremely stressed and does not take proper sleep. The researchers carried out a study on almost 500 people who wanted to lose weight up to minimum 10 pounds in a period of six months.

The team has told that all the participants were counseled with different ways to lose weight, including attending weekly counseling sessions, cutting daily intake by 500 calories and exercising three hours a week. Along with it, they were also told to keep a daily food diary and take a low fat or low sugar diet daily.

It was eventually discovered by the team that those participants who were overweight tended to put on more weight in case they were highly stressed. However, it was only in case of obese people as those who were thin or with normal weight did not show any such results.

In addition, it has been suggested by the study published in the International Journal of Obesity that people who are overweight and are on their way to lose weight, should always take adequate hours to sleep. The group affirms that such people may even need to disturb and cut some tasks from their daily schedule, but must get enough sleep.

“Some may find that exercise can reduce stress and help them sleep. For some people, mind/body techniques such as meditation also might be helpful”, says Lead researcher, Charles Elder, MD, MPH, an investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.