To lose weight, get plenty of sleep

This is one of the most important health tips we gave you in 2010. We'd repeat it to you every day if you lived next door:

Nobody diets to look more like Homer Simpson. So, to be sure the weight you're losing is mostly squishy fat - not lean, sexy, calorie-torching muscle - take out this nighttime insurance policy: Say goodnight to Jimmy Kimmel and the Weather Channel, and spend more time under the covers.

In a provocative new study, dieters who slept 8 1/2 hours a night lost twice as much fat and held on to nearly twice as much muscle as those who scraped by on 5 1/2 hours of slumber.

While everybody lost the same amount of weight, the well-rested group hit the jackpot, because lean muscle looks far sleeker than fat (think Chippendales dancers versus the Pillsbury Dough Boy). Plus, the more muscle you've got onboard, the better, since muscle is a metabolic engine that burns more calories around the clock. And that makes it easier for you to keep weight off.

By the end of the study, the long sleepers were burning an extra 114 calories a day (that's about 10 pounds a year).

The magic sleep number for most of us is six to eight hours. When you're on a diet, a long night's sleep seems to persuade your body to burn fat as its preferred fuel. Getting plenty of sleep also keeps the hunger hormone ghrelin in check, so you're less tempted to steal the doughnuts hidden in back of the freezer. Homer might, but a well-rested you won't.

P.S. Throw those doughnuts out. If they aren't in your home, you're less likely to eat them.