Lose sleep and see your unwanted weight gain increase. This is a simple concept that many people do nothing about. The easiest strategy of all for losing belly fat might just be to get better sleep. Take a look at this research and see what you can do..
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Sleep Study on Weight Gain

Here is the original scientific research and the published abstract. The main point is highlighted with a yellow background.

Sleep. 2010 May;33(5):593-8.

Associations between short sleep duration and central obesity in women.

Theorell-Haglöw J, Berne C, Janson C, Sahlin C, Lindberg E.

Department of Medical Sciences, Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Uppsala University, Sweden. jenny.theorell-haglow@medsci.uu.se

STUDY OBJECTIVES: The aim was to assess associations between sleep duration, sleep stages, and central obesity in women.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.
SETTING: City of Uppsala, Sweden.
PARTICIPANTS: Population-based sample of 400 women (range 20-70 years).
INTERVENTIONS: Full-night polysomnography and measurement of anthropometric variables.
MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Sleep duration was inversely related to both waist circumference and sagittal abdominal diameter. Sleep duration remained inversely related to waist circumference (adj. beta = -1.22 cm/h; P = 0.016) and sagittal
abdominal diameter (adj. beta = -0.46 cm/h; P = 0.001) after adjusting for potential confounders. Duration of slow wave sleep (SWS, adj. beta = -0.058 cm/min; P = 0.025) and REM sleep (adj. beta = -0.062 cm/min; P = 0.002) were both inversely related to waist circumference afteradjustments. Moreover,duration of REM sleep was inversely related to sagittal abdominal diameter (adj. beta = -0.021 cm/min; P < 0.0001). These associations were stronger in young women (age < 50 years). CONCLUSION: An inverse relationship between short sleep duration and central obesity was found in women after adjusting for confounders. Loss of SWS and REM sleep may be important factors in the association between sleep loss and central
obesity.

And…

Again with the main point highlighted:

Sleep. 2010 May;33(5):573-4.

Obesity and sleep: a bidirectional association?

Vgontzas AN, Bixler EO, Basta M.

Sleep Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry H073, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. avgontzas@psu.edu

The association between sleep disorders and obesity has been recognized for many years. From the first descrition of Joe the “Fat Boy” who fell asleep in any situation at any time of day (The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens), to the large sophisticated studies in clinical and general populations, the association of sleep apnea and obesity has proven to be one of the most well-established facts in the sleep medicine literature. In 2004-2005, the field was jolted by a series of publications on the association of short sleep duration and obesity. Several epidemiologic studies showed a consistent association between self-reported sleep duration and body mass index (BMI),1-2 whereas experimental laboratory studies showed that curtailment of sleep in healthy subjects leads to increased appetite and reduction of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite.3 The message from these novel findings was simple and exciting, “Sleep more and you will lose weight.” This message also had a significant public health impact, given the epidemic of obesity that Western countries have been experiencing since at least the 1980s.

How to Get Better Sleep

Let me count the ways…

Okay, it may not be easy to do everything that you can to get better sleep. The idea behind this post came from a list of suggestions by Dr. Mehmet Oz in Parade magazine. Take a look and see what you can do: Dr. Oz to the Rescue! How to Sleep Better in 2012

For me, the easiest piece of advice from Dr. Oz that I can (and do) follow is to take a natural sleep remedy. He suggests melatonin and valerian root as good examples. The only part of that advice that I would object to is the amount of melatonin he recommends – 2.5 mg. That may help some folks, although it isn’t very much. I get a lot better results with 20 mg. It may take you some experimentation to find out what is ideal for you. Younger people generally require less, since their natural melatonin production hasn’t dropped off as much as mine has.

For reversing unwanted weight gain,

Dr. D