They say using a CPAP machine will help me lose WEIGHT..Is this true?

I use a CPAP machine to help me with my sleep apnea. They say sleep apnea can cause lots of health problems which include WEIGHT GAIN... 1st QUESTION ----> Why? They say once I start to use the machine and it stops the snoring and the all day sleepiness, I will lose WEIGHT...2nd QUESTION----> Why?
How does not sleeping well affect my weight gain?

Sleep Apnea creates lots of health problems for yourself: weight gain, chronic tiredness, lack of concentration and many more up to and including stroke, heart attack and death. Why? It is because you are breathing abnormally all night and never getting your restful stages of sleep (stage 3 and stage 4) because your brain keeps waking you up to breathe. Essentially, if your brain did not wake you up in time, you would stop breathing and could die. It's quite a serious condition that you should see your doctor about immediately.

These are reasons why not sleeping well affects weight gain:

1. You receive less oxygen because your breathing supply gets cut off regularly. Once you get the proper amount of oxygen into your bloodstream it will take more energy to burn it.

2. Less energy equals less propensity to exercise. Once you have energy, you feel like exercising again.

3. Sleep deprivation lowers the levels of two hormones: leptin (suppresses appetite) and raises levels of grehlin (increases desire for food intake) both said to be important for maintaining weight. If you don't get stage 3 and stage 4 sleep, you do not receive these hormones.

Good luck and I hope you receive treatment soon.

First of all a CPAP machine is usually used for what's called obstructive sleep apnea. This is when your tongue falls in the back of your throat during sleep and obstructs a normal breathing pattern. When you don't breath, the CO2 builds up in your lungs and blood, your brain naturally responds by waking you up so you will start breathing. Most people with sleep apnea wake up on an average of 10 to 20 times a night whether you know it or not.

When your body loses sleep, hormones that control appetite increase causing people to become hungrier. There has been researches that have proven that those who get more sleep are actually thinner.

It is because when you are tired all day you are moving slow and less active. your metabolism is slower. if you are using the cpap machine and you are sleeping through the night you will have more energy during the day, increasing your metabolism. that is the theory.

If you lose weight, you will improve your overall health. And some patients don't need CPAP after they lose weight.