Often CPAP therapy makes the patient feel better resulting in them eating healthier, or exercising more, causing weight loss.
Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition that can have many adverse health effects, from fatigue and poor concentration to an increased risk of hypertension and heart disease.
For those who suffer from sleep apnea, CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) therapy is often recommended as the best treatment option.
Though, will it help you lose weight? We will discuss the details of how a CPAP machine may help you lose weight.
How does A CPAP Machine Help You Lose Weight?
Obesity And Sleep Apnea is an Evil Relationship
First, we need to address that obesity or weight gain is, most of the time, the cause for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Over 70% of people with sleep apnea are overweight or obese.
Then, once you have sleep apnea, the weight gain can get worse due to OSA disrupting sleep.
Frequent sleep disruption messes with hormones which make you eat more, and makes you feel exhausted so your activity decreases.
As you can tell, these two are a bad combo. We have a whole article about how sleep apnea affects weight gain with the details.
What the CPAP Machine Really Does
A CPAP machine forces air down your airway so that snoring or an obstruction can’t block your breathing. How would this help you lose weight?
Though, you may have an idea now, the cpap machine alone will not help you lose weight.
Instead, it will make you feel better overall by getting better, uninterrupted sleep. This makes you have more energy and your hormones will balance again.
This, in turn, will make the treatment of the CPAP Machine help you lose weight by putting you in a better mood to make better choices.
People who receive CPAP treatment are more likely to be more active because they feel better!
They are also more likely to not eat too much or crave bad foods due to their hormones being normal again.
In the end, the CPAP machine treatment starts the journey that helps you make better choices that lead to weight loss.
Will Sleep Apnea Go Away With Weight Loss?
So, if obesity causes sleep apnea, will losing weight help or cure sleep apnea? In most cases, absolutely! A study had 89 adult men who were all obese. Half used CPAP machine treatment and half did not.
Over 50% of the ones who used CPAP machine therapy lost an average of 6 lbs and reduced the symptoms of OSA. 15% of them put sleep apnea into complete remission!
This is just one study. There are many people who have had success with getting rid of sleep apnea or greatly reducing the symptoms of OSA by using CPAP and losing weight.
There is a guy named Jim Uren who lost 150lbs and ultimately cured his sleep apnea in a year. He attributed his motivation to do so to CPAP therapy.
Conclusion
There are cases where weight loss will not help symptoms of OSA and it could be how your skull, facial or throat is structured.
If something like this is cause of the obstruction, then an ENT could help.
Regardless, if you are looking to lose weight by treating sleep apnea or not, OSA should never go untreated. It is proven to shorten lives by 10-15 years if left untreated.
It is also proven when treated with a CPAP machine, or other methods such as surgery or implants, that you can live a normal, healthy life.
