Want to keep those kilos off? Try mindfulness

Recent research has concerned itself with the many benefits of mindfulness as  more people embrace meditation and mindfulness in their daily lives.

Mindfulness is known to reduce stress and anxiety, improve resilience and focus and can protect against diseases such as heart disease.

But now researchers have turn to investigating if mindfulness can help you lose weight?

In the follow up evaluation after several weeks of the intervention, participants who practiced mindfulness continued to steadily lose weight bringing their average weight loss to 3.5 per cent.

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal, Canada conducted a systematic review if 19 studies which involved 1,190 participants collectively.

These studies were all conducted in the past ten years and included three approaches of mindfulness: formal meditation practice, casual mindfulness training targeting eating habits, and a combination of meditation and mindfulness strategies.

Initially, participants who practiced mindfulness lost 3.3 percent of their body weight compared to 4.7 per cent seen in participants who only dieted and exercised.

But in the follow up evaluation after several weeks of the intervention, participants who practiced mindfulness continued to steadily lose weight bringing their average weight loss to 3.5 per cent.

Participants who exercised stopped losing any more weight and may have also gained some weight which they had lost initially.

Overall mindfulness helped in moderately to largely effecting weight loss and improving obesity-related eating behaviours.

Although there were several limitations in the studies, researchers believe that this review shows us that mindfulness interventions can be useful in achieving long term stable results in weight loss.

They can easily supplement existing weight loss programmes to give them the advantages offered by mindfulness in weight loss and in enhancing general health and wellbeing.

With the focussed attention of mindfulness, perhaps we are able to resist cravings and are motivated to exercise making us healthy inside and out.

Source: Obesity Reviews