percent more calories overall than nondrinkers. Keep tabs on how much you’re pouring: Experts consider four ounces to equal one serving—about one-fourth to one-half of a big goblet. To get more mileage out of one judicious glass, “drink it when it really matters to you,” says psychologist Robert Rhode, Ph.D. “Decide whether you prefer it as an aperitif or if you’d savor it more with your dinner.” YOU TELL YOURSELF: I can get by on five hours a sleep a night. Reality Check: Skimping on shut-eye is okay every once in a while, but getting fewer than seven hours a night regularly will make you moody, irritable and less productive. “Sleep debt makes multitasking and the ability to focus more difficult,” says Clete A. Kushida, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research in Palo Alto, California. The heart health consequences are pretty steep too. Getting less than seven hours of sleep each night can increase your risk of high blood pressure, which is one of the leading risks for heart disease and stroke. Being a sleep underachiever can lead to weight gain. Being overweight or obese can increase your risk of heart disease by increasing blood pressure, LDL (“the bad”) cholesterol levels and
January/February 2020
blood sugar. Excess weight also makes your heart work harder to send blood to all the cells in your body. People who typically get five hours a night also have 15 percent higher levels of ghrelin, a hormone that can stimulate appetite, than those who get eight hours, according to researchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K. If you feel like nodding off whenever you’ve got quiet time—a train ride or a long movie—you need more zzzzs. To get more sleep, try to go to bed earlier, such as 9:30 PM. If that’s not possible, try to grab an afternoon nap whenever you can. YOU TELL YOURSELF: I’m not overweight, I’m just big-boned. Reality Check: We know it’s hard to hear, but if your body-mass index (BMI)—a measure of fat based on height and weight is 25 or higher, you may need to lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight, says Dr. Ballantyne. Unfortunately, bone mass can constitute only 4 to 7 percent of your total weight—about 6 to 10 pounds if you weigh 150—and that’s considered too small to affect BMI. Calculate your BMI at https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm, the web site for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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