Can Meditation Help you Loose Weight?

Kay2016Sexy
Kay2016Sexy Posts: 26 Member
in Motivation and Support
Well Meditation can do a lot of things, and is recommended for a lot of things as well. So I'm up for it does anyone else want to join me on this (NEW . . . Me? or NEW You) quest? Okay let me explain some of the stuff meditation is good for, as a nurse I've never personally tired meditation before, but I'm gonna start because it was recommended to me by one of the Doctors that I work with. Meditation's myriad benefits include reduced blood pressure, healthier arteries and an enhanced sense of well-being. With all these benefits going for it, meditation is an ideal tool for relaxation and self-discovery on the way to your weight goal.

These are the 7 steps of BASIC MEDITATION.

1.Sit straight in a comfortable, quiet place.

2.Close your eyes.

3.Relax your muscles.

4.Pay attention to your slow and natural breathing.

5.When distracting thoughts occur — and they will — simply notice them and gently bring your attention back to the breath. You may have to do this often at first.

6.Continue for 10 to 20 minutes.

7.Try to practice once or twice daily. With time, meditation will "bring a sense of relaxation, of coming to peace," And from that place of peace helping us to make decisions.


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Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Meditation may make you feel better but CICO is what helps you lose weight.
  • Kay2016Sexy
    Kay2016Sexy Posts: 26 Member
    Okay let me know how that turns out for ya! lol But I'm pretty sure your gonna have to do a little more then just meditating to lose weight or get a 6 pack!!! As we all know that, . . . It states in the post, (on the way to your weight goal) Do you all ever read all the post?? Or do you just think okay sure I can meditate and lose 80 lbs???? For Real??? Some people are so funny!!! And yes ikr (I am a very funny person too), but at least I'm real about what I have to say on here).
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
    Meditation can help lower cortisol levels, so in some people it can be a helpful tool to add to proper diet and exercise. Meditation is not relaxing to all people and can actually cause stress which increases cortisol.
  • Kay2016Sexy
    Kay2016Sexy Posts: 26 Member
    Well I've never tried it, so I hope it's not too stressful! I've never heard anyone say it's stressful, but? I'm sure it could be possible! And with the thoughts always coming up??? . . . . That's gonna be hard to settle those down, I'm sure!!! Thanks for letting me know that. I really do appreciate your advice! It's nice to know that some people on here are nice and supportive.
  • Kyrenora
    Kyrenora Posts: 133 Member
    edited January 2016
    Kay2016Sexy wrote: »
    Well I've never tried it, so I hope it's not too stressful! I've never heard anyone say it's stressful, but? I'm sure it could be possible! And with the thoughts always coming up??? . . . . That's gonna be hard to settle those down, I'm sure!!! Thanks for letting me know that. I really do appreciate your advice! It's nice to know that some people on here are nice and supportive.

    There are many, many forms of meditation. Many people think it's just sitting and "clearing your mind," but that's really not feasible as a starting point. If you're worried about the thoughts coming up, look into moving meditations. If you want to sit, focus more on mindfulness. Acknowledge all the thoughts that come up, but try not to linger on them, just move on to the next one. I've found meditation can help with weight loss by A ) allowing me to dismiss boredom food cravings and B ) helping me to work up the motivation to exercise.
  • PrimalJillian
    PrimalJillian Posts: 1,129 Member
    For those who want to try, but maybe feel a little intimidated by the idea of clearing the mind, guided meditations can be a nice alternative.
  • ladycclear
    ladycclear Posts: 50 Member
    Meditation can be a lot of things. The breathing exercises help and calm. I find music helps too. This is a song that motivates me and it's topical, one of the lyrics "the body talks and meditation helps" https://youtu.be/1LsabQV0Yjk
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited January 2016
    Meditation stuff like this makes me lmao, which burns calories :)

    http://reductress.com/post/how-to-open-your-second-vagina-through-meditation/
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »
    Meditation can help lower cortisol levels, so in some people it can be a helpful tool to add to proper diet and exercise. Meditation is not relaxing to all people and can actually cause stress which increases cortisol.

    this is what i was thinking.
    i would i say that if you aren't finding meditation relaxing, you might need to keep working on it. like many things, it can be stressful when you aren't great at it and it needs practice
  • AlisonH729
    AlisonH729 Posts: 558 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Meditation may make you feel better but CICO is what helps you lose weight.
    Kay2016Sexy wrote: »
    Okay let me know how that turns out for ya! lol But I'm pretty sure your gonna have to do a little more then just meditating to lose weight or get a 6 pack!!! As we all know that, . . . It states in the post, (on the way to your weight goal) Do you all ever read all the post?? Or do you just think okay sure I can meditate and lose 80 lbs???? For Real??? Some people are so funny!!! And yes ikr (I am a very funny person too), but at least I'm real about what I have to say on here).

    Well that escalated quickly.
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
    I studied for years with Tibetan Buddhists and Japanese Zen Masters. Mediation is good for lots of things, but weight loss isn't one of them.

    Most of what meditation is good for involves training the mind and gaining conscious control over your automatic responses. Can this help you lose weight? Possibly. If you apply this discipline to such things like portion control, mindfulness to calorie and macro counts, becoming aware of triggers for emotional over eating.... these things are logical and possible. But you can also accomplish all of those without meditation.

    All of my teachers would tell you to study meditation for the sake of meditation and the sake of the practice. They would laugh at the idea of using meditation for something like weight loss... or really "using" meditation for anything. They would tell you that it doesn't work that way. "A practice is a practice for a reason and that reason is not the perceived benefits that might come from doing said practice." -Lama Tenpa Gyaltson
  • rorymason
    rorymason Posts: 167 Member
    Not an expert on meditation, but if it helps relax you, and stress causes you to overeat, then why not try it?
    I didn't get from Kay's post above that she was advocating meditation only to lose weight, but rather to reduce stress in order to have more clarity to make better decisions. A lot of people believe even if you fix your body ie) weight loss, and your head is not where it needs to be, you will fall back in the same pattern. Maybe she is just looking at the whole picture ie) a whole mind body
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    Everything starts out as a mental event without exception.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    I don't know, when I was meditating in Thailand I lost a bunch of weight. I suspect it had more to do with the small breakfast, and small lunch with no eating after noon rules that we were following. But the meditation helped with learning to deal with the constant gnawing hunger pains. FYI, I do not recommend losing weight this way, I gained it all back once I could start eating again.
  • ARGriffy
    ARGriffy Posts: 1,002 Member
    I have been using sleep "hypnosis" ap's which is just mild guided meditation for years now as they really help me sleep so I got a weight loss one now to listen to as I fall asleep and it's obviously very calming as I don't think I've heard more than 5 mins! I think mild meditation can help clear your head which then focuses your mind on goals so it can be a good thing :)
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    I remember when I saw the monks who would put wet towels on themselves in the snow and force them to heat up so that vapor came off. The video insisted that they did this through sheer mental power and that it increased their metabolic rate as they had to produce tremendous amounts of heat, all because they had mastered mind-body control.


    Then some years later I found out how rubbish it was. The non-meditating sherpa's and other people in the region living in the extreme cold of the mountains can all do the same trick. It isn't mind over matter, it is just a matter of people living in the cold eventually grow adaptions that cause their bodies to produce more heat in response to the cold. If - if - you lived in such an environment for years, you might increase your basal metabolic rate by 100 calories a day. You'd probably hardly notice it after all the weight lost doing outdoor labor in the cold causing weight lose anyway.
  • brb_2013
    brb_2013 Posts: 1,197 Member
    I found a guided meditation on my kindle, and the focus seems to be on relaxing and then he just talks for a while about choices, how my subconscious mind will learn to "stop, pause,and choose"
    Im hoping listening to it for a while will help me not to succumb to impulsive food choices which is where all my poor food choices happen- impulse. We'll see!! At worst it's just a nice relaxing time, and really what's the harm in spending 15-20 minutes a day truly relaxing???
  • mgodfrey0202
    mgodfrey0202 Posts: 35 Member
    newmeadow wrote: »
    I was able to stop smoking by doing daily Zen meditation.

    I belonged to a Zen center and we would meditate as a group. The rules are strict. Once you start, you can't stop. There's no getting up and walking out of the room because you're bored or your legs hurt.

    You sit with crossed legs on a mat, straight back, hands in formation under your navel, eyes open gazing about two feet in front of you on the floor. And then you count the breath from 1 to 10. Rinse, repeat.

    Anyway, oftentimes it was agonizing. The leg pains and cramps, reining in the mind again and again from racing thoughts and daydreams, starting at the count of one. The boredom. The itch you can't scratch. The runny nose you can't blow. You can't fidget when meditating in a Zen group. If you must change positions, you bow, stand and remain standing with your palms together in front of your chest for the remainder of the sitting.

    But the discipline of it had benefits I could have never anticipated. I was able to withstand the smoking urges, no matter how intense, because I had acclimated myself to sitting through the daily rigors and suffering of the meditation itself.

    I'm sure hunger pangs and cravings could also be managed in this way, with this perspective and practice.

    Just a disclaimer though. Zen isn't a feel good, airy fairy, new age type of meditation with synthesizers and flutes piped into the background. No one's envisioning angels swooping down. (I know you weren't implying this, I'm just sayin'.) Zen's been described as the most bare bones type of meditation that can be practiced.

    There are usually Zen centers in all major metropolitan areas. It's really gaining in popularity. Maybe look into it and give it a try once or twice to see if you'd want to keep doing it. Because it's easier to get started when you meditate in a group setting then trying to start doing it all by yourself at home.

    Thank you for sharing your experience!! I attend Japanese Zen buddhist service as well and the same thing you mentioned (the "altered" meditation) irritates me time to time. :smile:

    As for the mediation itself, there are many benefits that have been studied by western scientific standards. But just like your fitness journey, a long term practice needs your dedication and determination. Try it for a while and see if it benefits you. :smile: Don't expect it to directly help your weight loss though. It may help you indirectly with other aspects of your weight loss journey.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited January 2016
    Be polite, always CITE.

    https://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=6011&sc=3047
  • bigbodybake
    bigbodybake Posts: 49 Member
    I don't see how it could hurt, may not be a big factor in weight loss though. I like to take about 30 minutes a day, 2-3 times a week myself. Just lay down, ice and elevate my lower legs, and relax, think about what the workouts felt like, kinda melt into breathing, always makes me feel a little better

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