Can Meditation Help With Your Weight Loss And Emotional Eating?
Please excuse me for starting this article with a little pitch, but I want to put this in here early because I truly think if you have got this far, you are open-minded enough to give Meditation a real go to help you with your fitness journey.
The Daily Stillness…
In December 2021, for all of my clients whom I work with on The Strong and Confident Program, I decided to create a Meditation Course called The Daily Stillness.
I wrote, recorded and produced a 30-Day Course with 10-minute Meditations on there for my clients to enjoy and to help them with their progress. They are all designed to help them find clarity and exploration in their fitness journey.
I opened the course up to my email list, and those who follow me on Social Media - and 50 people signed up - which I was stoked about.
Which led me to write this Blog Post for you.
Every Meditation has a “Guiding Quote” to help encapsulate what the meditation is about, some of my favourites are:
The Meditations are free and sent to you by email each day once you sign up.
They are broken down into 5-day mini-courses:
Day 1-5: Centering The Breath
Day 6-10: Drifting off to Sleep
Day 11-15: Creating Consistency in your Behaviour
Day 16-20: Building Self Esteem
Day 21-25: Healing Your Inner Self
Day 26-30: Managing Anxiety and Stress
Each day comes with daily affirmations and quotes to help guide your thoughts and find your inner strength, confidence, and self-esteem. The Meditations focus on stillness, self-love, self-confidence and success to help you in all aspects of life from love to weight loss.
To enroll in the Meditation Course just head here:
Can You Lose Weight by Meditation?
For the title of this article, I have chosen my words very carefully.
You can call me a pedant. You can call it semantics.
But I call it the truth.
The article is called “Can Meditation HELP with Your Weight Loss?”
It is not called: “Can meditation CAUSE weight loss?”
For a very specific reason.
The long and short of it is this: The only way you can lose weight is through a Calorie Deficit.
Read My Article That Has Helped 1000s of People Learn How To Set Up Their Calorie Deficit Effectively
Therefore Meditation cannot cause weight loss. But it certainly can help you manage it.
And that is entirely the purpose of this article.
I’m not going to spend too long on the nuances of a Calorie Deficit in this article, simply because I want to talk to you about the benefits that Meditation can afford you in helping you achieve a Calorie Deficit.
If you want more in-depth information on a Calorie Deficit:
What a Calorie Deficit is,
How to set your Calorie Deficit up,
Other tools and processes that help you achieve a Calorie Deficit,
Then I would encourage you to send me a Friend Request and I will send you my Free Calorie Calculator, and my Free Book: “27 Ways To Faster Fat Loss”.
Plus I love having new friends and as my friend, I might send you other things you might find useful. Links to Podcasts, posts and possibly some things that might not always be appropriate - but that’s what makes a friendship great isn’t it?
Just fill in the form below, and send me a friend request….
Now we are besties…
Let me show you how Meditation can help with your weight loss…
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR: CAN MEDITATION HELP WITH WEIGHT LOSS AND EMOTIONAL EATING?
Meditation and Weight Loss: How weight loss really works
Meditation and Stress Relief
The Benefits of Meditation According to Science
Being Realistic About Meditation
Meditation and Weight Loss: How weight loss really works
A calorie deficit can often feel like this. You probably feel like you have tried everything and just not been able to figure it out, hence you are now searching for “alternative solutions”.
Which probably bought you to search for whether Meditation is a tool that can help you.
There is a phrase regarding a Calorie Deficit that I always like to start with when discussing it with people:
“A Calorie Deficit is as simple as Calories In vs Calories Out….it just so happens that Calories In vs Calories Out isn’t that simple”
If you have ever struggled with weight loss, you will understand this quote on a fundamental level.
Setting up a Calorie Deficit is one thing.
Getting the right numbers in place, understandign how your food works towards that, and trying to make sure that your nutrition is in line with what you have set up is a very easy task to accomplish intellectually.
But like with most things;
When you put human behaviour into the mix plans tend to go awry.
And this is why “a Calorie Deficit isn’t that simple”.
I go into this in great depth and detail in this article: Is A Calorie Deficit All That Matter For Weight Loss?
In that article, I discuss what effects the Calories In part of the Energy Balance Equation:
Personal Economic Factors
Your Social Circle
The Community you have around you
Genetic Factors
Hormonal Factors
Medical Factors
Weight Stigmatisation
Emotional Factors and Disordered Eating
And I then discuss what effects the Calories Out part of the Energy Balance Equation:
Weight Sitgmatisaiton
Genetic Factors
Fat Phobic Attitudes
A Lack of Self Confidence
Inaccessible Gyms and
Arresting Environments
Repeated Failure
As you read some of those words I am sure that some resonated deeply with you - and some didn’t. This is the beauty of humanity. We are all different.
Now imagine simplifying all of those factors that might affect someone on navigating a weight loss journey, to the phrase:
“Eat Less, Move More”
It’s terse right? Not even. It’s downright insulting.
Telling someone who is getting psychiatric help from a hospital following a gastric bypass, to simply eat less and move more, when 73% of those patients have a history of sexual abuse [1] is nothing but insulting.
Telling someone to simply “go for a run” when the last time they did that they had people hurl abuse at them, is shameful and insensitive.
And when you look at it through this lens, you realise that the art of a Calorie Deficit is beyond nuanced - because all of these things affect how we manage our energy balance as people, as individuals.
Therefore the mechanism of Weight Loss is a Calorie Deficit but the art is learning to master:
Emotions
Empathy
Self Compassion
Understanding
Education
Affirmation
Building Momentum
Recognising progress
Loving Yourself
Giving Gratitude
And that is a lot of topics to unpack.
And it this through this lens that we must view the answer to the question: Can Meditation Help You Lose Weight?
Meditation and Stress Relief
It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge that the main reason we would practice meditation is to, help us reduce stress levels.
Therefore in order to be able to talk about the benefits of meditation, we must look at what negative effects on your body stress can have.
Stress can have a significant effect on your physiology that then will lead to increased body weight as you will be trying to fight the negative effects of higher cortisol in your body oftentimes with food, or due to your stress, you will try and calm yourself down oftentimes with increased caloric intake - think Wine after work, takeout when you can’t be bothered to cook.
This is perfectly normal, but the more we live in this state of high stress, the more body weight we potentially will gain.
Too much Cortisol in your system over too long a period of time is also known as Cushing’s Syndrome.
This study [10] found that when we have higher levels of Cortisol in our body, we metabolise calories more slowly. The study took a group of 58 healthy women and measured their metabolism on a day when they were stressed, and a day when they were not stressed and found that there is a:
“104 kcal, a difference that could add almost 11 pounds/year. These findings illustrate how stress and depression alter metabolic responses to high-fat meals in ways that promote obesity”
It is also apt to note that higher levels of depression are common in people who have high cortisol levels.
Over time, as you are stressed, your body weight will increase as it becomes harder to control your calories because you seem to be fighting so much more:
Body shape changes (around the face, upper back and midsection)
Purple stretch marks
Fatigue
Muscle weakness
and in some people who have Cushing’s Syndrome:
Higher Blood Sugar
Increased Thirst
Mood Swings
Anxiety
Irritability
Depression
Headaches
Now for a moment, imagine trying to lose weight on top of dealing with all of those, or even some of those conditions - added to that, let’s not forget being in a Calorie Deficit is a stressful state to be in also as this study [12] called “The weight-loss experience: a qualitative exploration” points out when it says:
“The results of this study highlighted that for participants in this research, weight loss was experienced as a difficult and enduring journey, with physical, cognitive, behavioural, social and environmental dimensions. Weight loss was, therefore, a challenging journey that was punctuated with factors and experiences that either assist or disrupt the endeavour. Weight loss was assisted by mindfulness, knowledge, exercise, structure, readiness to change, social support and self-monitoring. Weight loss was challenged by dichotomous thinking, environments, social pressures and weight centeredness.”
As I said previously, telling someone to just “eat less, move more” is very insensitive, and I think this clearly shows that to be true.
In a study [11] titled: “Stress and Obesity: Are There More Susceptible Individuals?” states:
“In the past years, an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure was regarded as the main cause of the obesity pandemic. However, considering the abovementioned effects of chronic cortisol exposure, evidence is mounting that cortisol is also a kingpin in this pandemic.”
Cortisol is a kingpin in this ‘obesity’ pandemic.
And it makes sense to me.
The news is stressful. Politics is stressful. Paying the bills is stressful. Being a parent is stressful. Having a career is stressful. Losing weight is stressful.
The world is stressful. And it is important that the more stressors we are faced with, the more tools we need to help us deal with them.
And as the study called “The Weight Loss Experience” states:
“Weight loss was assisted by mindfulness”
We should probably now look into the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.
Meditation and Weight Loss Research
Stress Relief.
When using the word stress I always think it is important to quantify directly what we mean - and in this case, it related directly to:
Anxiety,
Depression,
Pain
This study [2] took 47 trials covering over 3000 participants, and from that huge database of evidence it found that:
“Mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety, depression and pain”
Interestingly the study also found that:
“We found low evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight. We found no evidence that meditation programs were better than any active treatment (ie, drugs, exercise, and other behavioural therapies)”
You might now be thinking:
HUH?? Then what is the point in this article?
Well, the study looked at the effect of meditation directly affecting Bodyweight - as opposed it being a tool in your toolbox of helping you with a Calorie Deficit.
This is a very interesting point to make - as there are an awful lot of books and companies out there that will simply say you can “Meditate Your Way To Weight Loss” which clearly isn’t true.
You still have to be adherent to the principles of a Calorie Deficit, and Meditation is a tool with which to help you do that.
So please remember that as we progress.
Increases Emotional Awareness
I just want to put a trigger warning in this section of my Blog. I go onto discuss past trauma and the effects that can have on ones bodyweight. If you would like to skip past this section then please do by clicking here
An awful lot of what goes into gaining weight and losing weight is connected to your emotional centre.
There are some people in this world who can simply learn the principles of a Calorie Deficit, and implement them, and that’s all they need to know about how to lose weight.
However, this is the vast minority of people, and in my nearly 10-year experience in helping thousands of people lose weight, helping people understand their emotional self has a far greater impact on their long-term success when it comes to weight loss.
It makes sense that our bodies are a direct reflection of our emotional centre. In fact, there is a direct link between weight gain and past sexual trauma in society. There is a direct link between weight gain and past emotional trauma in society, and there is a direct link between weight gain and psychological trauma in society [4]
And if any of this happened to you as a child there is also a very serious link not to be ignored [3] as it leads directly to body dissatisfaction and then to Binge Eating Disorder and then to weight gain.
Simply telling someone who has gone through this as a child or adult to: “Eat less, move more” is very obviously insensitive.
Telling someone who is struggling with body dissatisfaction not as a result of previous abuse, but possibly as a result of the pressures of society like social media [5] to just “eat less, move more” is again insensitive. As this study of Social Media and Body Dissatisfaction concludes:
“On average, social media use was positively associated with body dissatisfaction, but this relationship was weaker among adolescents who reported a more positive mother–adolescent relationship” [5]
Then combine that with when you begin to understand that the more someone focuses on trying to change their body image, the more dissatisfied one becomes with it.
One of life’s dichotomies.
As this study [6] states:
“It is also important to examine the effects of persistent use of dieting and disordered eating behaviours on behavioural, physical, and psychological outcomes such as binge eating, weight status, and depression.”
The intricate link between one’s emotions and one’s body weight is clear to see - and by just trying to “fix” the body weight is clearly demonstrated to not be a sustainable solution.
Like with most things in life, you must tackle to root causes of the thing you are trying to address - and oftentimes by addressing the root cause you realise that the thing you are trying to “fix” doesn't actually need fixing.
You have almost taken away the issue because you are no longer walking down the path that leads you there.
The link between the help of Meditation and re-adjusting your emotional view of the world is also outlined here in this study [7]:
“A substantial body of evidence indicates that meditation therapies may have salutary effects on patients suffering from clinical depressive disorders”
NB: If anything I have referred to in this section has triggered you, or you feel you need more support then please take a moment to reach out to a Mental Health Charity. Meditation is not designed to heal trauma, and if you feel like you need that support then please reach out to one of the following Charities:
In the UK: Mind.org.uk
In the US: Mental Health America
In Australia: Beyond Blue
Enhancement of the Self
Have you ever heard the phrase “thoughts are just things”?
Do you know what an emotion actually is?
This might just blow your mind.
Both thoughts and emotions are not exactly real - they are valid - yes. But they aren’t factual reality.
“An emotion occurs when there are certain biological, certain experiential, and certain cognitive states which all occur simultaneously.”
This is critical in helping us see how can meditation help you lose weight - because it puts you in the driving seat.
Let’s look at your thoughts.
Have you ever walked down the road and thought to yourself… “I wonder what would happen if I tripped that person up?” or one I remember having was when I was holding a knife and I thought to myself; “What would happen if I just stabbed my leg right now? What would it feel like? What would the consequences be?”
Now the thought alone is just a thought. It is just a moment in time, a speck of brain matter that would only actually have any resonance if I acted on it. You see, thoughts are only as important as the weight we attach to each one.
Now of course, the more a thought pops into your head, the more likely you are to give it more attention. There was a study done by the National Science Foundation in 2005, which estimated we have between 12,00 and 60,000 thoughts per day - and about 80% of those thoughts are negative and 95% are repeated from the day before [8].
In 2005, Cornell University did a study in which scientists found that 85% of what we worry about never actually materialises and secondly, with the 15% of the worries that did occur, 79% of the subjects found that either they could deal with it better than they expected, or that the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning.
The conclusion is that 97% of our worries are baseless and result from an unfounded pessimistic perception.
How about that?
When we realise that thoughts and emotions are valid, but are not steeped in factual reality it allows us to apply what I call a Wide Angle Lens to our issues. It gives us a much greater perspective on our subjective experience of life, and therefore it allows us to work on being more factual with our reality.
There is a link between poor self-esteem and increased cortisol levels in your system [13], as well as a positive link between high self-esteem and lowered cortisol levels [13].
Therefore being able to get a build a more positive understanding of yourself, being able to work on your reaction to your thoughts which are very repetitive and being able to learn how to control your reaction to negative thoughts in a much more salient way will indeed help you reduce your cortisol levels.
Improves Sleep
I know this to be true personally, and it is also a huge reason that The Daily Stillness has a section dedicated solely to sleep.
However, every single meditation appears to have the effect of helping people drift off to sleep.
As my friend Jenny, on Instagram said about The Daily Stillness.
And the science backs this up too. To fully understand the effects, you have to understand that Insomnia is a condition commonly caused by….STRESS!
This study [14] took a series of Senior Meditators, Novice Meditators, and non-meditators and examined their sleep patterns. The study concluded that:
“Senior meditators showed distinct changes in sleep-organization due to enhanced slow wave sleep and REM sleep, reduced number of intermittent awakenings and reduced duration of non-REM stage 2 sleep. The REM sleep-organization was significantly different in senior meditators with more number of REM episodes and increased duration of each episode, distinct changes in rapid eye movement activity (REMA) dynamics due to increased phasic and tonic activity and enhanced burst events (sharp and slow bursts) during the second and fourth REM episodes”
If you are unsure what REM is, it is the deepest and most restorative part of our sleep.
As well as being a kick-ass band.
In an article, I wrote last year called: Why Does Sleep Effect Your Weight Loss? I go very deep into the effects Sleep has on your body weight - and why sleep is a very important aspect of your tool kit for your Calorie Deficit.
When I am struggling to fall asleep I turn to something known as a Sleep Story - I first found these on the Calm App - and they are a game-changer for helping you not only fall asleep but also have a deep and wonderful restful sleep.
They also inspired me to write some myself to try and help my clients fall asleep too.
Here is one I have produced - try it tonight - I really hope it helps you have a wonderful sleep.
Anything we can do to make sure you are well rested as you attempt to lose weight is worth doing - and Meditation is clearly something that falls into that category - and sleeping well is the top priority there.
Being Realistic About Meditation
When someone says the word: Meditation to you…
Is that the image you have?
On the beach, at sunrise or sunset. Being at one with nature and your thoughts. Feeling all the things and having hours in the day to just “be”. Or getting up at sunrise, getting your Yoga Mat out and stretching at sunrise by the back door to your house in the peace and quiet of the tranquillity of the morning.
It used to be my image of Meditation.
I used to think if it was being done in this setting, there was no value in it - and then I would try to do it once and getting up at 04:37 just for the sunrise would make me so tired, I didn’t feel like stretching and then I would just fall asleep the second I started meditating - I’d then be out for a few hours more than expected and miss my morning appointments.
So yeah.
The habit didn’t really stick. There was more value in me just sleeping more - than trying to create this perfect picture of how to meditate.
The true fact is that this “ideal” like with most “ideals” creates a far too high barrier of entry and has a doubling negative effect on you.
It makes it far too hard to get started
It makes you feel like a failure if you don’t do it this way.
Just like Disney.
Now I love Disney. Toy Story, the Lion King, Monsters Inc - which is probably the most perfect film I have ever seen.
But Disney has created a huge problem in women of my generation and below.
I was sitting in the cinema once with my Ex and we were watching Frozen…
And the topic of conversation was not my uncanny resemblance to Olaf…
But it was when Elsa was singing a song…and she was walking around like she was on a catwalk, like this:
My Ex simply said: “and that is why so many girls have body image issues”
And she was right. And I sat there stunned. It was like a light bulb went off in my head.
Because its not just girls. I thought to be worthy I had to look like Gaston, Aladdin or Hercules.
When really I look like Olaf.
Meditation has been treated exactly the same in society.
It has been embellished with this ideal situation and state you have to be in to make it “worthy” of doing.
When in fact…all you need is a floor or a chair…probably some headphones and 10mins to yourself.
It’s like with most, worry less about getting it right and worry more about getting it done.
You don’t have to be on a beach, you don’t have to do it at sunrise and you certainly don’t need to find 30minutes in your already crazy day to make it effective.
I remember one of the most rewarding meditations I ever did, was in a dark dank room in my Corporate Job in London, on the floor. Where I was mattered a lot less than my need to connect with my breath at that moment.
And that should be your driving force.
When do you need to connect to your breath, as opposed to where you are when you need to do it.
When I coach people on the Strong & Confident Program, one of my main tasks is to reduce the barrier of entry for them to exercise. Many people who I work with have a very strained relationship with exercise and they have very busy lives. Therefore one of my main tasks is to make sure I set them up with a plan that is achievable for them.
For some this takes the shape of 10-minute workouts, a blend between Home Workouts and Gym Workouts, dialling down their expectations of themselves to make sure what they set out to do is achievable - as nothing builds confidence more than executing on what you said you would.
The issue is, many people say they want to do far too much, and it becomes very overwhelming and then procrastination follows.
I have had this relationship with meditation and exercise for long periods in my life.
I have managed to address it with exercise. And the reason I created The Daily Stillness is to help address it with meditation.
All I tried to do was lower the barrier of entry for you, so that you can actually experience the benefits, aside from weight loss, that meditation can bring you:
The meditations are 10 minutes a day
They get emailed to your phone
You can do them anywhere
They are Free
It is a meditation that is realistic but equally has huge benefits attached to it.
The way I see it is that no matter where you are, no matter who you are and no matter how you do it - connecting with your breath gives you benefits far more reaching than just “weight loss”.
And anything that can help us reduce our stress levels in this day and age is something worth exploring.
What’s Next?
Well if after reading this Blog Post you would like to give The Daily Stillness a try then all you have to do is click on the button below and then sign up for the free meditation course.
If you want to find out more about Losing Weight and how to go about figuring out that journey then please have a look through these other helpful articles:
How Do You Get Motivated To Exercise When You Are Depressed?
6 Strategies to Help Stop Late Night Food Cravings
Thank you so much for being here, I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read my website.
Hopefully, we will speak soon.
Thanks for being here
Coach Adam
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