What if there was a weight loss meditation guide that actually leads to weight loss?
Although there are seemingly endless weight loss plans available, few ever address meditation.
However, this is an issue considering that weight loss is also a mental process.
Meditation addresses the inner mental work necessary in order to lose weight.
Whether you’re new to meditation or a pro, I put together this guide especially to help you manage your weight with meditation.
What is Meditation
Meditation has become widely popular in the mainstream over the past few years. But, what is it about and why should you do it?
While meditation has many definitions, at its core it is about developing your awareness and perspective.
It involves quieting your mind in order to focus on who you truly are and what you want to be.
There are countless benefits associated with meditation. Just a few of them include:
Increasing self-awareness
Reducing negative emotions
Sleeping better
Reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms
Lowering blood pressure
Personally, my own meditation journey has given me an overall healthier body and mind while boosting positive feelings.
In terms of weight loss, I am more motivated to exercise and better at controlling my food intake.
There is no reason to not try mediation!
The Connection Between Weight Loss and Meditation
Weight loss is more than just physically dropping pounds.
Rather, it’s you becoming the person that you see yourself being.
This is where most wight loss plans go wrong: they fail to recognize the important mental component of losing weight.
Meditation makes up the lost mental piece of the puzzle that most weight loss plans miss.
Some of the mental aspects of weight loss include:
Creating a healthy relationship with food
Boosting self esteem
Increasing motivation and willpower
Imagining who you want to become
Your outer body is a reflection of what’s happening on your inner body. This means you need to do the inner work before you can see outer results.
With meditation you can address many of these mental challenges.
Coupled with healthy eating and exercise, meditation leads to a more holistic weight loss.
Benefits of Using Meditation for Weight Loss
The physical benefits of using meditation to lose weight are more than just dropping pounds.
Other meditation-weight related physical benefits include:
Building lean muscle
Preventing bodily pains
Improving overall outward appearance
In order to build lean muscle, you need optimal levels of testosterone in your body.
Meditation reduces cortisol, the stress hormone, in order to increase testosterone and build muscle.
Once your body has more lean muscle, its metabolism increases which burns more body fat.
Because meditation decreases stress, it leads to less pain in your body. With less aches and pains, it’s easier for you to get active and build more lean muscle.
Meditation can also help boost your overall appearance.
Research shows that meditation improves the condition of your skin, creating an overall better complexion.
Because you want to not just lose weight, you can use meditation to drop pounds and become your best self.
Meditation Routine and Practices
So, how can you get started with meditation for weight loss?
Before getting started, you must understand the most important part of meditation: consistency.
Like any new habit, meditation takes practice.
In order for practice to pay off, you must be consistent with it.
Make meditation a consistent part of your daily routine if you want to reap the benefits.
To begin with, you need to know how to meditate.
Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Meditation if you’re brand new to meditation.
Next, create a schedule for meditation. The best times to practice meditation for weight loss are:
- after waking up
- before working out
- before going to bed
Block out at least 5 minutes of your schedule in the morning, before working out, and before bed.
It’s important to make meditation a priority in your agenda.
Block out time in your schedule to meditate before meals if you struggle with overeating.
Lastly, try integrating other meditation-related practices into your schedule. Try:
- journaling
- yoga
- at-home self care
These practices help promote mindfulness. More mindfulness promotes better meditations and better weight loss results.
Keeping Weight Off With Meditation
Not only do most weight loss programs not work, they also don’t help at keeping weight off.
Most people who lose weight through dieting and exercise gain it right back.
Estimates are as high as 80% of people who lose weight either gain it back or gain more back.
While there may be many reasons why people gain back weight, one of the most crucial is the mental aspect.
A recent study about regaining weight stated, “This relapse appears to be attributable to the individual’s inability to persist with the behavioral strategies needed to maintain the new lower weight.”.
People are unable to keep weight off because they don’t have the right mental perspective.
Meditation can help correct for this break in mental perspective.
If you are currently trying to keep lost weight off, here are some thoughts for you to meditate on:
- Why did I choose to lose weight in the first place?
- What triggers caused me to gain weight in the first place?
- What subconscious limiting beliefs do I have about myself?
- I am worthy of being healthy and feeling great!
Once you lose weight, you need to keep up the inner work that helped you lose it to begin with.
Don’t forget that you are worthy of having the body that you want.
You deserve to be healthy and happy in your body and mind!
The Bottom Line
Most weight loss programs fail because they forget to address the inner work that goes along with losing weight.
Meditation helps fill that mental gap.
It’s the thing that helps you lose weight, keep weight off, and live a happier life!
Bonus tip: Use meditation to help you with mindfulness eating for better weight loss results.
