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How To Lose Weight Overnight Fast – 6 Healthy Ways 2024

Paige Anderson
by

Reviewed by Dr. Michael DiLeo, MD
how to lose weight overnight
Is it possible to lose weight overnight? Photo: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

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Maybe you have a social event coming up and want to look great in your formal wear. Maybe you’re just sick of waiting for results from your weight loss efforts. Either way, you’re not alone. Many people want to know how to lose weight overnight.

But is it possible to achieve meaningful weight loss in just one night? Sadly, no.

The good news is that you can boost your weight loss results while you sleep! Let’s take a look at why your weight changes overnight and throughout the day and what you can do to support your weight loss goals after you fall asleep.

How To Lose Weight While Sleeping

  • Practice healthy sleep habits.
  • Avoid eating too late in the evening.
  • Build muscle to burn more fat overnight.
  • Work out in the evening to burn more calories while you sleep.
  • Stay hydrated to prevent water retention.
  • Take a cold shower to boost brown fat and overnight fat burning.
  • Sleep quality impacts weight loss and health.
  • Talk to your doctor if you think you might have sleep apnea.

How To Lose Weight Overnight

how to lose weight overnight
You can boost your overnight fat burn with better sleep! Photo: fizkes/Shutterstock

We spend about a third of our lives asleep. Can you put that time to good use to shed pounds and lose weight while you sleep?

Yes! With a few simple habits, you can keep burning fat and enhance your long-term fat loss and body composition goals.

Practice Healthy Sleep Habits

Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for good health. Sleep deprivation won’t just leave you feeling cranky in the morning. It also changes your metabolism,[1] eating habits, and ability to lose weight.

Chronic sleep deprivation can also change how your face looks,[2] so prioritize quality sleep if you’re wondering how to lose face weight overnight. This is called sleep hygiene.[3]

Avoid Eating Too Late In The Evening

It may seem pretty straightforward: eat fewer calories and burn more to lose weight, right? Sort of. It turns out it’s not just about how many calories per day it takes to lose weight. Your results may also depend on when you eat!

The timing of your meals[4] could impact how your body stores unused energy. Eating late in the evening could disrupt your circadian rhythm, which controls the timing of bodily functions like sleep and the release of hunger hormones.

Build Muscle To Boost Metabolism

Losing weight may be your goal, but shifting your focus could net better results. Improving your body composition by increasing lean muscle while decreasing body fat will give you lasting health benefits.

Better yet, resistance training and strengthening[5] exercises have been shown to boost your baseline metabolic rate and improve your body’s ability to burn fat.

Remember that losing weight involves complex metabolic processes beyond calories in and out. Calculating net carbs and other macros may help you maintain healthy eating habits. However, don’t neglect a balanced diet that you can actually live with long term!

Work Out In The Evening To Burn More Calories While You Sleep

Wondering how to lose weight overnight fast? Moving your workout to the evening could help!

Research suggests that evening exercise[6] can boost your body’s ability to utilize glucose before it becomes stored as fat. Working out in the morning will still benefit your health and help you lose weight, but evening workouts improve metabolism more than workouts earlier in the day.

Stay Hydrated To Prevent Water Retention

There is no way to target fat in one particular body area, but retaining water can make some areas appear puffy. You may notice your belly appears flatter when you wake up. This flatter appearance is because you lose retained water overnight.

Dehydration can cause your body to hang onto water weight. If your biggest concern is figuring out how to lose weight in your face overnight, you may need to think about water retention and swelling as well as overall weight loss. Certain supplements like creatine may also make your face look puffy.

Drinking enough water can reduce water retention and puffiness and help you achieve better health and weight loss results, too!

Take A Cold Shower To Boost Fat Burn Overnight

Do you want to know how to lose weight fast without exercise overnight? Taking a cold shower before bed could boost your metabolism and help your body build brown fat.

Wait, isn’t fat bad? Not always! There are two main types of fat cells: white fat and brown fat. White fat stores energy for later use. Brown fat[7] helps us burn energy effectively and has several significant benefits for overall health.

Cold exposure[8] effectively activates brown fat in the body, triggering many other reactions that can support healthy metabolism and weight loss.

There’s no substitute for good habits, including plenty of physical activity. Building muscle and getting enough cardio are both vital for your overall well-being and weight loss. Cold exposure is a great non-exercise addition that can support other healthy habits!

Why Do You Lose Weight When You Sleep?

how to lose weight overnight
You can maximize your results by burning more calories overnight. Photo: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

Any change in weight between falling asleep at night and waking up the next morning is mostly due to loss of water weight, waste excretion, and overnight fasting. Even though you may lose weight overnight, fluctuations over a short time are normal and usually temporary.

However, your body continues to burn calories and fat stores overnight while you sleep, so some weight loss occurs during your rest. These effects can be maximized with good sleep hygiene and simple habit changes.

Many people pursue weight loss with dietary changes like reducing their carbohydrate intake. Although this may be a positive change sometimes, extreme dieting and calorie restrictions can be hard to maintain, often leading to rebounds and weight gain in the long term.

In fact, eating carbs after an overnight 8-hour fast[9] can boost your exercise performance if you exercise more than 45 minutes in a session! If you’re looking for lasting change, strive for lifestyle changes you can live with. A balanced approach to improving your nutrition and slowly increasing your daily activity will help you achieve lasting results.

Supporting your overall health with good hydration, healthy sleep habits, and building muscle with evening workouts can help you see those high-quality results sooner by helping you burn fat while you sleep.

Can Enhanced Sleep Quality Promote Weight Loss?

The importance of sleep quality for your health cannot be overstated. Getting better quality sleep can even affect your weight loss![10]

Good sleep hygiene includes:

  • Limiting blue light exposure[11] for a few hours before going to sleep by putting electronic devices away and turning off screens.
  • Practicing a consistent bedtime routine to remind your body it’s time to rest.
  • Aiming for the same bedtime every day, even on weekends.
  • Building a relaxing environment to sleep in, including blackout curtains to keep the room dark.

Sleep hygiene recommendations increase the hormone melatonin at the right time of day. If you have trouble getting your full eight hours, you can also support your body’s natural melatonin production with supplements.

Even if you think you’re getting sufficient sleep, many people suffer from poor sleep quality without realizing it. Sleep apnea[12] is a serious condition that can increase risk factors for other health issues. It’s closely associated[13] with high visceral fat. If you want to know how to lose belly weight overnight, you should talk to your doctor about getting checked for sleep apnea.

Conclusion

Many diet trends aim at fast weight loss, but lasting change comes from a slow and steady approach. While your weight will probably fluctuate throughout the day, overnight weight loss is usually temporary. 

It is meaningful, however, when it continues as a long-term result of a consistent dietary and lifestyle strategy. 

However, you can improve your body’s ability to burn fat while you sleep!

Just a few habit changes like getting better sleep can support your fitness journey and net significant rewards for your health.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it normal to lose 1 kilogram overnight?

Yes, as weight fluctuates throughout the day. We weigh less first thing in the morning due to losing water weight to urine production, sweat, and water vapor in our breath. Overnight weight loss is not sustainable fat loss.

Will I gain weight if I sleep after eating?

Not necessarily. However, the timing of your meals can affect how much energy your body stores as fat. Avoiding eating late in the evening may help regulate your circadian rhythm and boost your weight loss.

What is the maximum weight loss overnight?

You do burn calories while you sleep. You may see a difference of up to a few pounds if you weigh yourself before bed and after you wake up. However, any overnight weight loss should be considered temporary.

Why am I heavier in the morning?

Possible reasons include needing to have a bowel movement, eating lots of salt or a high-carb meal the previous evening, bloating, where you are in your menstrual cycle, and alcohol use the previous day.

+ 13 Sources

EHproject has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We work mostly with peer-reviewed studies to ensure accurate information. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

  1. Evangelia Papatriantafyllou, Dimitris Efthymiou, Evangelos Zoumbaneas, Codruța Alina Popescu and Εmilia Vassilopoulou (2022). Sleep Deprivation: Effects on Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. Nutrients, [online] 14(8), pp.1549–1549. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14081549.
  2. Sundelin, T., Lekander, M., Göran Kecklund, Someren, V., Olsson, A. and Axelsson, J. (2013). Cues of Fatigue: Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Facial Appearance. Sleep, [online] 36(9), pp.1355–1360. doi:https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.2964.
  3. CDC (2022). Tips for Better Sleep. [online] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/sleep_hygiene.html.
  4. Ju Young Kim (2021). Optimal Diet Strategies for Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. Journal of obesity & metabolic syndrome, [online] 30(1), pp.20–31. doi:https://doi.org/10.7570/jomes20065.
  5. Gehlert, S., Weinisch, P., Römisch-Margl, W., Jaspers, R.T., Artati, A., Adamski, J., Dyar, K.A., Thorben Aussieker, Jacko, D., Bloch, W., Henning Wackerhage and Gabi Kastenmüller (2022). Effects of Acute and Chronic Resistance Exercise on the Skeletal Muscle Metabolome. Metabolites, [online] 12(5), pp.445–445. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12050445.
  6. Trine Moholdt, Parr, E.B., Devlin, B.L., Debik, J., Giskeødegård, G.F. and Hawley, J.A. (2021). The effect of morning vs evening exercise training on glycaemic control and serum metabolites in overweight/obese men: a randomised trial. Diabetologia, [online] 64(9), pp.2061–2076. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-021-05477-5.
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  8. Huo, C., Song, Z., Yin, J., Zhu, Y., Miao, X., Qian, H., Wang, J., Ye, L. and Zhou, L. (2022). Effect of Acute Cold Exposure on Energy Metabolism and Activity of Brown Adipose Tissue in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Frontiers in Physiology, [online] 13. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.917084.
  9. King, A., Helms, E.R., Zinn, C. and Jukić, I. (2022). The Ergogenic Effects of Acute Carbohydrate Feeding on Resistance Exercise Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, [online] 52(11), pp.2691–2712. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01716-w.
  10. Kline, C.E., Chasens, E.R., Zhadyra Bizhanova, Sereika, S.M., Buysse, D.J., Imes, C.C., Kariuki, J.K., Méndez, D.D., Maan Isabella Cajita, Rathbun, S.L. and Burke, L.E. (2021). The association between sleep health and weight change during a 12-month behavioral weight loss intervention. International Journal of Obesity, [online] 45(3), pp.639–649. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-00728-8.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paige is a certified registered dental hygienist with extensive knowledge in patient education, nutritional intervention, and the impact of oral health on systemic disease. She is also a professional competitive athlete with a world championship title… See More