Have you ever considered the 10 ways to use meditation for weight loss?
Do you want to lose weight and feel fantastic?
Who doesn’t, right?
Do you need some help reaching your weight loss goals? I mean, don’t we all?
I’m going to let you in on a secret. The one that no one is telling you…
Don’t go searching for a diet or exercise plan. Not until you get your emotions in check. Especially stress and anxiety.
Here’s why your diet and exercise plans don’t work. And why it’s not your fault. No matter what the fad of the day is selling you.
Here’s the truth.
Your emotional state dictates your ability to stick to a diet or exercise program. Period. Full stop.
And your emotional state is one of the primary causes of Metabolic Mayhem.
If you don’t get your mind right, you won’t see success. But if you do get your emotional core balanced, then almost any diet and exercise plan will work.
But the people that sell diet and exercise plans never tell you this, do they? It’s almost like they want to keep you fat. So that you keep buying their stuff.
So what do I mean when I say that your emotional state is what determines your ability to stick to plan?
Good question.
Stress hormones lead to emotional eating. That makes sense, right?
There are four stress hormones we’ll focus on for this guide. They are:
- Ghrelin
- Leptin
- Cortisol
- Adrenaline/Noradrenaline (Yes, I know this is technically 2, but they do basically the same thing.)
If you exert control over these six hormones, you’ll have full control over your weight.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed out, these hormones work together to make you feel hungry and crave sugary or fatty foods. This is your body’s way of trying to cope with the stress by giving you a quick burst of energy.
Let’s look at them quickly one by one (for a more in-depth look at each, click here).
Ghrelin increases when you’re stressed. It’s known as the “hunger hormone” because it makes you feel hungry. More ghrelin, more hunger.
Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain when you’re full. When you’re stressed, leptin levels drop. Add that to the ghrelin spike, and you’re hungry with no regulator to say when you’re full. This leads to overeating.
Adrenaline and noradrenaline handle short-term stress. They trigger the heart-pounding fight or flight reaction. But if the stress continues, cortisol kicks in.
Cortisol is a stress hormone that can also lead to emotional eating. It tells our bodies to store fat when it’s levels spike. Like during times of prolonged emotional stress.
Here’s the harsh truth, stress keeps you from losing weight. Being unhappy keeps you from having the body you want. The body you deserve.
And it’s all designed this way.
Think about the stress of just trying to lose weight causes.
Tell me if any of this sounds familiar…
I remember starting a diet program. I saw the before and after pictures. “It must work,” I thought.
I’m successful. And I have plenty of willpower. So it should be a walk in the park.
Except it wasn’t. I struggled. And when I went on Facebook and Instagram and saw my friends on the beach and by the pool in their swimsuits… I just kinda gave up.
Looking like that wasn’t for me, I remember thinking.
In a last-ditch effort, I reached out to the program’s support staff. “You must be cheating, you have to follow the plan to the letter. It works if you work.”
The last sentence was crushing. It works if I work…
I must be broken.
It’s a heartbreaking feeling.
All the while, I kept gaining weight.
But that’s only a piece of my story. It has a happy ending. And I’m sure your story will too.
So, how do we combat this endless cycle of stress and weight gain? We start at the end. We start with getting rid of the stress and finding happiness.
For me, one of my first ah-ha moments was when the planets aligned. I was reading the 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris. He was talking about meditation and how it helped him.
This was as I was seeing Dr. Bob about my own anxiety and depression. And he too, not 24 hours after I read about Tim’s process, brought up meditation.
Meditation is one of the best ways to crush stress. And when we eliminate stress, our hormones start to reset.
As we’ve seen, when we’re anxious, our bodies create a flood of hormones. These hormones tell our bodies that it’s time to overeat and store fat.
So, Can Meditation Help You Lose Weight?
Meditation can help you lose weight because it makes you aware of how you feel about yourself and your life.
When you’re heavier than you want, it can be easy to feel like you’re a victim and that there’s nothing you can do about it.
Especially when the popular diet and exercise plans seem to work for everyone but you.
But that’s not true!
Those programs are designed to make you feel this way. That’s the most heartbreaking part.
I cannot say this enough. Weight loss doesn’t start with your body. It doesn’t start with your diet. And it doesn’t start with your workout.
Weight loss starts in your mind.
And some simple meditation for weight loss techniques will help you take control of your life. And, as a result, your waistline.
When we meditate, we learn to focus on the present moment. We learn to become aware of our thoughts and feelings without judging them.
This is an important skill because when we’re stressed or anxious, we tend to dwell on the past. Or we tend to worry about the future. Anything other than being here in the present.
This type of thinking often leads to negative emotions such as guilt, regret, fear, and anxiety. But when we focus on the present moment, these negative emotions start to disappear.
We also learn how to accept ourselves for who we are.
Alan Watts said:
Watts said:
“I have always been fascinated by the law of reversed effort. Sometimes I call it the ‘backwards law.’ When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float. When you hold your breath, you lose it — which immediately calls to mind an ancient and much neglected saying, ‘Whosoever would save his soul shall lose it.’”
What a paradox. But an important one to understand.
You have to be happy here to get there.
This is an important step. It’s often difficult to make changes when we don’t accept ourselves as we are. But when we learn to love and accept ourselves, change becomes much easier.
Additionally, meditation trains your mind to be more aware and focused. This type of focus is beneficial when it comes to weight loss.
With that said, here’s how meditation helps you eliminate stress, feel happier, and, as a result, lose weight faster and easier!
Meditation Helps Reduce Your Temptations
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to losing weight is resisting temptation. Temptation can be a major obstacle on our road to success. Whether we’re trying to avoid unhealthy foods or refusing to give in to cravings.
Some examples of diet and exercise-related temptations are:
- Eating unhealthy foods. I can hear the snack cakes calling me in the pantry right now.
- Skipping workouts. Oh, that bed feels so comfortable. I’ll sleep in today instead of going to the gym.
- Overspending on and overeating unhealthy foods. But it’s so easy to hit the McDonald’s drive-through, isn’t it?
- Procrastinating about starting or continuing a diet or exercise program. I’ll start tomorrow. Or next Monday. Maybe next month. Happy New Year!
When we’re stressed or anxious, it’s often difficult to resist temptation. Stress uses a great deal of what researchers call your ‘executive control function’. It forces you to pay attention to the stress, and not your goal.
When this happens, you are more prone to give in to temptations. And those temptations are usually tied to eating more or burning fewer calories.
But meditation can help us resist the temptation!
When we meditate, we learn how to focus on our goals and stay positive. We also develop self-control and discipline. We strengthen our executive control.
This means that when temptation strikes, we’re more likely to resist it. Because we’ve already trained our minds not to give in.
Meditation Can Help You With Mindful Eating
When you eat mindfully, you pay close attention to all aspects of your eating experience.
You’re aware of what you’re eating, why you’re eating it, and how it makes you feel.
You’re paying attention to taste and texture.
And you’re focused on the food, not on your device. Or your show on Netflix. And you’re not eating while working.
This can be a great way to lose weight because you’re less likely to overeat or eat unhealthy foods. We’re also more likely to enjoy our food and feel satisfied after we eat.
We also develop a better relationship with food, which can help us maintain our weight in the long run.
3 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating for Weight Loss
There are a few different ways to eat mindfully. You can try one or all of them!
- One of the best ways to practice mindfulness when it comes to food is to eat slower. This means chewing your food carefully and taking the time to enjoy every bite.
- Pay attention to the taste and texture of your food. Notice how different foods feel in your mouth. Is it crunchy or soft? What flavors can you recognize? Make it like the Hell’s Kitchen blindfold taste test challenge! You don’t have to cover your eyes, but you do have to savor your food.
- Be aware of how the food makes you feel as you are eating it. Does it make you feel sluggish or energized? Does it fill you up or leave you hungry? Keep a journal and write down how you feel 30 minutes after eating. See what trends you can identify.
Develop Healthy Habits Through Meditation for Weight Loss
One of the best things about meditation is that it helps us develop healthy habits!
Meditation helps you develop healthy habits by teaching you how to:
- Stay patient and disciplined. You don’t break down if you have a setback (see below). You are able to recenter and focus on getting right back on the path to success.
- Focus on your goals. You’re always considering the simple question: Is this decision taking me closer or moving me farther from my goals?
- Stay positive. Negative emotions wreak havoc on your hormones. And these hormones flood your system with signals to eat more and store more fat. Being in a positive emotional state has the opposite effect.
All these skills are important when it comes to losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
When we have meditation in our lives, changing our habits becomes much easier!
Emotional Eating? Yes. Meditation Will Help!
Emotional eating is one of the biggest reasons why people struggle with their weight. When we’re feeling sad, angry, stressed, or anxious, we often turn to food for comfort. This can lead to unhealthy eating habits and weight gain over time.
That’s because these emotions affect our hormones.
For example, when we’re stressed, our cortisol levels increase. This hormone tells our bodies to store more fat. And when we’re anxious, our adrenaline and noradrenaline levels increase. This hormone tells our bodies to release glucose into the bloodstream. Glucose in the bloodstream causes our blood sugar levels to rise. And, as a result, we start to crave sugary and fatty foods.
And these are just a few of the hormones that go wild when we are feeling negative emotions. As we mentioned above, leptin and ghrelin are also involved.
Yet, when we meditate for weight loss, we learn how to deal with our emotions in a healthy way.
We learn how to accept them and cope with them in a positive way.
This means that when we’re feeling emotional, we’re less likely to turn to food for comfort.
Meditation Can Help You Set Realistic Goals
One of the biggest problems with weight loss is goal setting. To be specific, it is that we are often tricked into setting unrealistic goals. We want to lose 30 pounds in a week or something like that.
It’s because those few success stories that hook us into the program make us believe it’s possible.
But true change is a long process. I’ve seen too many people crash diet, lose all the weight they want… and be as sad and unhappy (if not more so) as when they started.
But meditation for weight loss can help us set realistic goals! When we meditate, we learn how to be patient and disciplined. We also learn how to focus on our goals and stay positive.
This means that when we set weight loss goals, we’re more likely to reach them. Because we’ve already developed the skills necessary to do so through meditation. And we’re more likely to enjoy the process and to appreciate the destination once we get there!
Avoid Cravings Through Meditation
Cravings are another common problem when it comes to weight loss. It’s easy for us to get carried away with cravings and give in to them. This, of course, can lead to unhealthy eating habits and weight gain over time.
But meditation for weight loss can help us avoid cravings! It’s all back to that patience and discipline we’ve talked about before.
It’s also centered around helping control those stress hormones that flood our system. You remember, the ones that lead to salt and sugar cravings.
But in addition to that, we also learn how to focus on our goals and stay positive.
This means that when cravings strike, we’re more likely to resist them. Because through meditation we’ve already developed the skills necessary to do so.
Motivated Through Meditation? You Bet!
When it comes to weight loss, make no mistake, motivation is key!
If we don’t have enough motivation and willpower, it’s easy for us to give up on our goals.
But meditation for weight loss can help us stay motivated.
Patience and discipline. Focus and strength. All these things are byproducts of meditation.
We keep a positive focus on the present and what we want now. We are able to make decisions from a position of power because we meditate.
This means that when times get tough, we’ll stay motivated. And that motivation will carry us through to our goals!
Meditation for Weight Loss Can Help You Deal With Setbacks
But, there will still be setbacks here and there.
Setbacks are a normal part of weight loss. It’s impossible to lose weight without experiencing some setbacks along the way.
There’s no other way around it.
Most of the time, I see people give up on even minor transgressions. They get down on themselves.
“But I made a mistake! I didn’t lose any weight this week!”
Ok, but what does that have to do with today? What does that have to do with this week? What does it have to do with now?
Meditation can help us deal with setbacks. We’re able to focus on the present, instead of dwelling on what went wrong. It helps us to move forward from now. It helps us get back on our straight line toward our goals without missing a beat.
When we experience a setback, we’re more likely to bounce back quickly.
Go to Sleep Faster and Sleep Deeper With Meditation
This is a biggie. Don’t sleep on it… (I crack me up!).
Sleep deprivation is a growing problem in modern society. And a huge contributor to weight gain.
Lack of sleep can lead to cravings, overeating, and poor decision-making.
All of which can sabotage your weight loss goals.
But meditation can help you get the sleep you need to lose weight.
How does meditation help? First, it helps you fall asleep faster. Because, during meditation, your body and mind relax, which in turn makes it easier for you to drift off to sleep.
Second, meditation helps you sleep deeper. This means that you’ll spend more time in REM sleep (the deep stage of sleep) and less time in light sleep or awake. And REM sleep is important when it comes to weight loss. It’s when your body repairs muscle tissue. And it’s the time during the sleep cycle when you burn the most calories.
In short, meditation can help you get the better quality sleep that you need to lose weight.
Meditation Can Help You Stay Positive
When you’re struggling with your weight, it can be easy to feel like you’re the only one going through it. But the truth is, many people are in the same boat. And some of them have managed to find their way to success. How did they do it?
By staying positive! Meditation helps clear your mind and focus on the task at hand. When you’re trying to lose weight, this can be a huge help. This is true especially when you’re feeling stressed or frustrated.
Here are 3 ways meditation can help you stay positive during your weight loss journey:
- Meditation teaches you how to deal with stress in a healthy way.
- It helps you focus on your goals.
- And it teaches you to be patient and accepting of setbacks.
This means that when times get tough, you’ll stay positive. And you’ll continue working towards our goals.
As You Can See, Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight Faster and Easier
When it comes to weight loss, meditation can help us reach our goals faster and easier! As we’ve discovered, when we meditate, we develop focus, discipline, and self-control. We also learn how to stay positive and focused on our goals.
All these skills are important when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.
When using meditation for weight loss, you’ll find it much easier to lose weight and keep it off for good!
So there you have it! Ten amazing reasons why meditation can help you lose weight and feel fantastic. If you’re looking to reach your goals faster and easier, meditation is the answer! Give it a try today and see for yourself how awesome it can be!
Last Updated on November 10, 2023 by Metabolic Mayhem Staff
