Getting more sleep can help to lose more weight.  

It is hard to believe that eating a little more can help you lose more weight.  It seems counterintuitive that laying down and doing less will help you burn more calories and lose more weight.  Believe it or not, sleeping more can help you lose weight.

How does sleep help you burn more calories and lose weight? 

1. MORE SLEEP = less grazing for junk food: If you sleep longer, you will eat less.  The obvious is that it is really hard to eat when you are sleeping.  Beyond this obvious, sleep makes sleep lower stress and ensures that we are more efficient and do less grazing for comfort foods.  
2. More sleep = calories burned: If you are a 70 Kg or 160-pound person, you will burn around 1 calorie per hour per pound of lean body mass or 70 calories per hour.  That is 560 calories per hour of sleep.  That is HUGE.  
3. More sleep = less hunger.  Less sleep leads to increased cortisol and increased hunger.  The more you are hungry, the more you eat and crave.  This leads to you guessed it, more belly fat.  More belly fat equals more insulin resistance and that leads to even more hunger and more eating.  It is a vicious cycle.  

The bottom line:  More sleep will help you lose weight and keep it off, so go get some more ZZZs.  Your belly will thank you for the added weight loss.