Meditation for Weight Loss - Is it beneficial?

YES

Meditation is a practice that helps to connect the mind and body to achieve a sense of calm. People have been meditating for thousands of years as a spiritual practice. Today, many people use meditation to reduce stress and become more aware of their thoughts.

There are many types of meditation. Some are based on the use of specific phrases called mantras. The most new-age trend that works is Subliminals, HZ, and Advanced NLP; others focus on breathing or keeping the mind in the present moment.

All of these methods can help you develop a better understanding of yourself, including how your mind and body works.

This increased awareness makes meditation a useful tool for better understanding your eating habits, which could result in weight loss.

Read on to better understand the benefits of meditation for weight loss and how to get started.

What are the benefits of meditation for weight loss?

Meditation won’t make you lose weight overnight. But with a little practice, it can potentially have lasting effects on not only your weight but also your thought patterns.

Sustainable weight loss

Meditation is linked to a variety of benefits. In terms of weight loss, mindfulness meditation seems to be the most helpful. A 2017 review trusted source of existing studies found that mindfulness meditation was an effective method for losing weight and changing eating habits.

Mindfulness meditation involves paying close attention to:

• where you are
• what you’re doing
• how you’re feeling in the present moment
• the great thing is you can do this with only 10 minutes a day

During mindfulness meditation, you’ll acknowledge all of these aspects without judgment. Try to treat your actions and thoughts as just those — nothing else. Take stock of what you’re feeling and doing, but try not to classify anything as being good or bad. This becomes easier with regular practice.

Practicing mindfulness meditation can lead to long-term benefits, too. Compared to other dieters, those practicing mindfulness are more likely to keep the weight off, according to the 2017 review.

Less guilt and shame

Mindfulness meditation can be particularly helpful in curbing emotional and stress-related eating. By becoming more aware of your thoughts and emotions, you can recognize those times when you eat because you’re stressed, rather than hungry.

It’s also a good tool to prevent you from falling into the harmful spiral of shame and guilt that some people fall into when trying to change their eating habits. Mindfulness meditation involves recognizing your feelings and behaviors for what they are, without judging yourself.

This encourages you to forgive yourself for making mistakes, such as stress-eating a bag of potato chips. That forgiveness can also prevent you from catastrophizing, which is a fancy term for what happens when you decide to order a pizza since you are already “screwed up” by eating a bag of chips.

How can I start meditating for weight loss? Dr. Traci K aka ME is offering you a chance to try it out for 21 days with our Academy that offers so many times a year a chance to join a support group and be active in a 21-day meditation challenge for weight loss.  You can learn more by requesting to join this private GROUP.