The Connection Between Light And Weight Loss

Hello, Viva community🌻

Have you ever felt frustrated by restrictive diets, intense cardio, and obsessive calorie counting? If you've tried to control your weight and still don't see the results, then this is the perfect blog for you. Instead of pushing harder on the same path, it might be time to consider a factor you may not have thought about: light. Yes, you read that right! Light might be the key element preventing you from losing weight.

In this week's  EduLight, we will explore how light and weight loss are more connected than you might think. Join us as we uncover this surprising link and how it can transform your health and well-being.😊

By the end of the reading you’ll get answers to these:
The Impact of Sunlight on Weight Management
Why Darkness Matters for Weight Loss
How to manage Cortisol for Weight Loss
The simple solutions available to everyone (7 action steps!)

The Impact of Sunlight on Weight Management

Did you know that sunlight impacts every hormone in your body? Sunlight helps us create vitamin D, which is actually a hormone, but it also triggers multiple biochemical pathways leading to the production of various hormones crucial for weight management. These include:

🧡 Thyroid hormone
💜 Insulin
🧡 Sex hormones
💜 Stress hormones
🧡 Appetite hormones

Getting exposed to sunlight multiple times during the day helps maintain optimal hormone levels. Sunlight triggers the production of hormones that regulate sleep, mood, and metabolism. By aligning your daily routine with natural light cycles, you can keep your body in better balance, making it easier to manage your weight.

Why Darkness Matters for Weight Loss

Lack of darkness’s impact on Leptin and Insulin

Leptin and insulin are two critical hormones in regulating appetite and metabolism.   Leptin is a hormone that tells the brain when enough fat is stored, preventing overeating and aiding in healthy calorie, while insulin regulates blood glucose levels. These hormones are modulated by light and can only enter the brain at night when it’s DARK.

• Leptin Resistance

Leptin resistance happens when your body can't properly signal how much energy it has, leading to overeating and a slower metabolism.  

Stored within subcutaneous fat, leptin travels to the brain during sleep, in darkness. It is responsible for a whole update regarding the energy reserves within the body, enabling the brain to determine whether there is a need for additional sustenance for survival.  Unfortunately, artificial light, particularly at night, impedes your ability to “listen” to leptin signals. When artificial light disrupts this process, you face leptin resistance. This means the brain does not receive accurate signals about energy stores, leading to increased hunger and overeating.

• Tips to Identify Leptin Resistance

☀️Difficulty Losing Weight: You find it hard to lose weight even with diet and exercise.

☀️Low Energy Levels: You frequently feel tired or fatigued.

☀️Poor Sleep Quality: You struggle with falling or staying asleep.

Another common consequence of leptin resistance is late-night eating. Those who are exposed to artificial light during nighttime hours or engage in irregular sleep patterns are more likely to consume high-calorie, unhealthy snacks later in the evening. This is because the hormonal imbalance caused by their circadian disruption can lead to stronger cravings and a reduced feeling of satiety.

• Insulin Sensitivity

Exposure to artificial light, especially at night, can raise insulin and blood sugar levels, leading to insulin resistance over time. Insulin resistance makes it difficult for your body to use stored fat for energy, making weight loss nearly impossible.

• Tips to Identify Insulin Resistance

 Frequent Cravings: You crave sugary or high-carb foods often.
☀️Increased Thirst: You experience increased thirst and frequent urination.
☀️Weight Gain: You notice weight gain, especially around the abdomen.
☀️Fatigue: You feel unusually tired after eating meals, particularly those high in carbohydrates.

• The Importance of AMPK Activation

AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) is an enzyme that plays a vital role in energy balance and metabolism. Activation of AMPK is crucial for maintaining a healthy weight and preventing leptin and insulin resistance. When activated, AMPK helps improve cardiovascular health, clean up old cells, increase lifespan, decrease hunger, and burn fat. However, poor sleep and exposure to artificial light can deactivate AMPK, leading to weight gain, hunger, and fatigue.

• How can I Activate AMPK?

☀️Practice Time-Restricted Eating: Fasting for 10-16 hours a day has been shown to increase AMPK activation, helping your body switch to burning fat for energy.
☀️Engage in Intense Exercise: Short bursts of intense exercise, such as sprints or HIIT training, can significantly boost AMPK activity.
☀️Expose Yourself to Cold: Even a brief cold shower can increase the amount of brown fat in your body, which is metabolically active and helps burn calories at rest.
☀️Wear VivaRays Circadian Lenses: These glasses improve your sleep quality by filtering out harmful artificial light and aligning your circadian rhythm.

Managing Cortisol for Weight Loss

Cortisol, the stress hormone, also plays a significant role in weight management. While short-term cortisol spikes can help deal with immediate stress, chronic high cortisol levels lead to increased blood glucose and insulin resistance, making it difficult to lose weight.

The Role of Natural Light in Cortisol Regulation

Morning sun exposure helps create a cortisol awakening response, setting your body’s internal clock for the day. This initial burst of cortisol is essential for giving you the energy to start your day. However, as the day progresses and natural light decreases, your body prepares to release melatonin, promoting restful sleep.

🧡Getting sunlight in the morning offers numerous health benefits that can directly impact weight loss. Early morning sunlight is full of red and infrared light frequencies, which are known to lower inflammation and promote healing. These frequencies help your mitochondria, the powerhouses of your cells, produce more ATP (the energy currency of your cells), boosting your metabolism.

💜As the sun rises higher, we start to get UVA light. UVA light interacts with many molecules in our body, including a protein called POMC, which is responsible for the production of beta-endorphin. This is the same molecule that gives people that euphoric feeling after a great workout, known as the "runner's high." UVA exposure from morning sunlight also helps with hormonal production, boosts your energy levels, and elevates your mood—all crucial for maintaining a healthy weight.

Disruptions to this natural cycle from artificial light can lead to prolonged high cortisol levels, hindering weight loss efforts. Artificial light, especially at night, can keep cortisol levels elevated when they should be decreasing, leading to increased blood glucose and insulin resistance. This makes it difficult for your body to burn fat effectively.

The Simple Solutions Available to Everyone (7 Action Steps!)

All this information sounds great, right? But how can you incorporate it into your daily routine? Here are some practical tips for managing light exposure:

🌻See the sunrise with naked eyes: Go outside with your naked eyes (no glasses, contacts, or sunglasses) and look towards the east. You don't have to see the sun coming over the horizon to get these benefits.

🌻Take a 20-30 minute walk during the time UVA light starts to appear: This transition period is an important signal for your brain to synchronize your circadian rhythm. Use a circadian app to know exactly when UVA starts to appear where you live.

🌻Block Artificial Light at Night: 

Our Circadian glasses are the perfect way to ensure that you are no longer exposed to the wrong frequencies of light during the day and night. 

During the day, when you are exposed to artificial light, wear our  daytime lenses to block the harmful peak of blue light that triggers the release of cortisol and elevates blood glucose and insulin levels, resulting in inflammation and weight gain.

After sunset, switch to our evening lenses. They block 100% of blue light while allowing just enough green light to stay awake & productive for your evening tasks or to socialize. 

End your day with our nightime lenses 1-2 hours before going to bed to maximize your melatonin levels and ensure the deepest & most rejuvenating sleep possible.  Checkout the 3-in-1 circadian lenses, which include the daytime, evening, and nightime lenses in one frame, for full day protection 

🌻Eat with the Sun: Preserve leptin and insulin sensitivity and maintain optimal cortisol and melatonin levels by eating during daylight hours, getting plenty of sunlight during the day, and wearing blue light-blocking glasses after sunset.

🌻Practice Time-Restricted Eating: Fasting for 10-16 hours a day has been shown to increase AMPK activation, helping your body switch to burning fat for energy.

🌻Engage in Intense Exercise: Short bursts of intense exercise, such as sprints or HIIT training, can significantly boost AMPK activity.

🌻Expose Yourself to Cold: Even a brief cold shower can increase the amount of brown fat in your body, which is metabolically active and helps burn calories at rest.

Real Success Stories from the VivaRays Community

The VivaRays community has already experienced significant hormonal balance improvements with the use of our glasses, helping them achieve their weight management goals.

 The Most Joyous Experience

“Trusting the gut in genuine brands that my purchase will pay off. And it eventually did. It surprised me on many levels, despite the excellent, most humane customer support I got. At the moment of writing this review, I'm wearing my Vivarays, blue-blocking glasses. I have a tiny face but they fit, and the product designers did a great job customizing the model to be flexible. Besides better sleep and concentration, I've noticed a weird thing... I eat a low-carb diet but there is something about my cortisol and blood sugar levels that have improved in the morning. Positive change since I'm wearing them. Wow! All stars for Vivarays. I wish their business prospers so they can grow, innovate, and we have good quality products for a lifetime 🙌🏻”- Jana.R

Visit our VivaRays website to explore more success stories and find the inspiration and motivation you need to reach your goals.

We understand how challenging it can be to lose and manage your weight, so we hope this information opens up a new path to a healthier life for you. Join us next week for another blog as we continue to uncover the keys to living in harmony with nature.

Together, we can achieve a balanced, vibrant, and healthy lifestyle. 🧡💜