Slim Chances

Everyday habits can affect your abs in a big way. Follow these science-backed suggestions to see a noticeable change in belly size and strength over time.

- Sara Angle

Sleep at a set bedtime and get eight hours

It’s key for bulletproofing your willpower against cravings and priming your body for burning calories. The waistlines of people who slept six hours a night were about three-quarters of an inch larger than those who got eight hours, new research from the University of Leeds in England reports. Why? After sleep loss, there is increased activity in brain regions associated with pleasure and reward in response to food, previous research has shown, and this may lead to more impulsive eating habits, explains study author Gregory Potter, Ph.D.

Plus, after just one night of lousy sleep (less than four hours), people had a reduced sensitivity to insulin, according to findings by Christian Benedict, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Uppsala University in Sweden. Usually, once insulin reaches the brain, it boosts satiety, so the brain’s impaired sensitivity to insulin could promote weight gain, he says.