Meditation is a small word but has a deep meaning. It is an ancient practice that was built to focus. It is a spiritual practice that puts your body, mind, and soul at rest. Some people call it concentration. But, to me, it’s an art of de-concentration where you allow your mind to be free of all the negative and positive thoughts to be in the state of ultimate peace.
There are many benefits of meditation increased concentration, increased confidence, and clarity about life, skill improvement, artistic revelation, increased inner strength, strong mind, peaceful sound, and strong healthy well-being.
But, recently some studies also linked meditation to weight loss. Want to know how? Read further!
Meditation and Weight Loss
Weight loss is a necessity as well as a major challenge among today’s generation. As 40% of the total population is overweight, you’ll always see people around you running the same race i.e. Weight Loss. While many ways can help you lose weight effectively, meditation has also evolved to be one of them. Yes, you can lose weight with meditation and that’s for a fact. You might think that meditation is for the mind, how someone can even relate it to weight loss? Well, weight loss too is more about mental efforts than physical ones.
Here are six reasons why meditation helps you lose weight more effectively:
It Lowers your BMR
BMR is the Basal Metabolic Rate which is the amount of calories you need at rest. Now what meditation does is it helps you lower your body’s BMR. That means you need lower calories when you’re simply breathing and your body is at rest. Lower calorie intake means more weight loss. As simple as that.
Meditation Helps You Control Your Cravings
Meditation gives you more control over your mind, body, and soul. Having said that, when you crave fast food and sugar, that’s when meditation can help control your mind and resist the urge to eat unhealthy food. Meditation also helps you prevent binge eating and emotional eating. This way, it helps in reducing weight.
Meditation Reduces Stress
Studies prove that stress is one of the leading causes of weight gain and obesity. And you must know that the best way to release stress is meditation. Meditation calms your mind and relaxes all the muscles of your body. If you meditate daily, stress can’t even come around you. Therefore, meditation indirectly helps in weight loss through stress reduction and preventing emotional eating.
Meditation Helps in Food Assimilation
Meditation has been proven to improve food assimilation in your body. It also prevents the hormonal imbalance and indigestion. When you meditate daily, you can have long-term effects on your digestion and eating habits. Therefore, meditation prevents you from gaining weight.
Meditation Helps You Stay Committed To Your Weight Loss Plan
Since meditation builds mental strength; it helps you stay more committed to your dieting and workout regime. It keeps your intentions in place and helps you stick to your goal. Therefore, if you meditate daily, you are less likely to cheat on your diet and weight loss program.
Meditation Makes Your Weight Loss Plan More Effective
Meditation creates a unique peace of mind and creates a sense of mindfulness around you, which makes your weight loss plan more effective in general. It acts as a catalyst for your weight loss plan and speeds up the entire process for you. When you think your weight loss plan isn’t working, that might be due to the stress and pressure you’re feeling. Try meditation.
Also Read: Roasted Chana for Weight Loss
How to practice meditation to overcome obesity?
The key to losing weight with meditation is being mindful about whatever you do to lose weight. Therefore practicing mindfulness meditation can help you reduce weight and lean down efficiently. But before you start, you must know that consistency and efficiency are the key.
Mindfulness Meditation to Reduce Weight
Follow the below-mentioned steps to lose weight through mindful meditation:
- Find a quiet place and wear comfortable clothes.
- Set the alarm for 15 minutes.
- Sit in a comfortable pose and take a deep breath.
- Now close your eyes, think about your goal, and start the art of de-concentration.
- A lot of thoughts might come in your mind, don’t force yourself to not think of them. Instead, acknowledge them and let them go.
- Acknowledge the things around you and let them go.
- Keep chanting the “Om” mantra for better focus.
- Open your eyes when the alarm rings.
When you finish the practice, you’ll feel lifted and extreme positivity around you.
Also Read: Roti Vs Rice – Which is Better For Weight Loss
When to practice mindfulness meditation?
You should practice the mindfulness meditation as the first thing in the morning. You can also meditate for 5 minutes before every meal and before you start your workout session.
Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is the healthiest way of eating food as it tells you about hunger and satisfaction. Most of us often do not pay attention while we’re eating. Suppose you’re busy at work and there is a box full of snacks in front of you. You won’t even notice that the box has suddenly been empty. Well, this is the problem we need to fix. Therefore, I told you to meditate before each meal so that you can learn how to eat mindfully.
So, how can you eat mindfully?
Mindfulness eating is about paying full attention to every bite that’s entering your stomach. It prevents you from overeating. Furthermore, it also helps your body to absorb more healthy nutrients from the food you eat. Therefore, mindful eating is the healthiest way of eating.
The same goes for the workout. If you can work out mindfully, it will be more effective.
Make sure you always do things positively to make things more effective and your weight loss plan works for you.