As study co-author Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., explains in a news release, “Our findings show that shortened sleep, even in young, healthy, and relatively lean subjects, is associated with an increase in calorie intake, a very small increase in weight, and a significant increase in fat accumulation inside the belly.”
He goes on to add that it appears to be the lack of sleep that causes fat to “redirect” to the visceral compartment, and further, “catch-up sleep, at least in the short term, does not reverse the visceral fat accumulation.”
And since the subjects didn’t actually gain that much weight but did have more visceral fat, the study authors point out that it’s easy for this kind of fat accumulation to fly under the radar.
