5 Ways Daily Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight

Breathe in, breathe out, and slim down.

Meditation is an excellent way to calm down and de-stress.

You’ve tried everything to drop those pesky pounds, from intensifying your exercise routine to restricting calories. Although a few extra minutes on the treadmill and smaller portion sizes can help you lose inches in theory, your mindset and stress levels could be preventing you from achieving your goals. Between your weekly pilates and kickboxing classes coupled with that strict plant-based menu you’re following, the hustle and bustle surrounding your weight can pile on extra stress and anxiety. These two components can certainly interfere with your progress. Did you know that something as simple as daily meditation can help you lose weight?

Don’t underestimate the power of your mindset. The weight-loss mentality can cause you to lose awareness of your thoughts and actions. In the end, it might compromise the choices you make when it comes to eating. That’s where meditation comes in: It can serve as your secret weapon. We’ve collected five incredible ways a daily meditation practice can help you lose weight. Sure, sitting in stillness doesn’t burn calories like sweating it out on the elliptical would. But meditation will balance your nervous system and ward off stress, transforming your body into a conducive weight loss machine.

If you haven’t hopped on the meditation bandwagon yet, it’s about time you did. Get ready to sit back, relax, and see how stillness can help you slim down!

5 Ways Daily Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight

Extensive research surrounding meditation and mindfulness practices prove that daily meditation can help you lose weight. First, it boosts your awareness and lowers stress levels, two concepts that will banish belly fat when channeled correctly. An attentive mind will also prevent you from emotional eating and binge eating. Let’s take a look at the specific ways meditation can help you with weight loss.

1. Lowers Stress

5 Ways Daily Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight destress

Not only will meditation help you feel calmer, but it actually has a stress-reducing biological impact on your body. Between work, kids, and an endless list of responsibilities, it’s no surprise that you might feel stressed. Unfortunately, tension-filled times cause your body to produce more cortisol. In excess, this stress hormone messes with your insulin and blood sugar levels and invites weight gain. Research shows that daily meditation can help you lose weight by activating the relaxation response, re-aligning your nervous system, and ultimately reducing cortisol levels.

Just a few minutes of conscious breathing is enough to reap the cortisol-lowering benefits of meditation! Say it with me, “Namaste.”

Pairing meditation with daily exercise and the right diet will dramatically lower your stress levels. Check out these 5 Workouts to Help You Combat Stress and load up on Stress-Relieving Superfoods!

2. Promotes a Surrender to Intention

Oftentimes, people who meditate like to focus on a specific concept or goal they have in mind. Meditating on losing weight will channel all your energy and intention to one specific goal. Here, you surrender to this intention by releasing it to the universe, silently shouting your goal to the world. Ultimately, your conscious and subconscious mind are aware of your intent to shed those pesky pounds. This powerful intention will stay with you throughout the day. It can help you achieve your goals consciously (and subconsciously) by remaining at the forefront of your mind while dodging distractions.

Need help getting started? Try playing soothing background sounds to enhance your experience with these 10 Energizing Songs for Meditation!

3. Promote Conscious Eating

5 Ways Daily Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight conscious eating

Daily meditation boosts your awareness and mindfulness levels, allowing you to live fully in the present. Although this sounds subjective, it’s not. Daily meditation can help you lose weight by helping you gain a heightened sense of awareness of your actions and thoughts. That might make you think twice before giving in to impulse.

Instead of allowing cravings to consume your mind, you’ll develop the power to dismiss those cravings and handle them with greater awareness and intention. When you do sit down to eat, your heightened awareness will make it easier to appreciate the rich flavors and textures of your food instead of scarfing it down and taking meals for granted.

4. Stabilizes Mood Hormones

Plenty of day-to-day activities and stressors can destabilize your system and throw your hormones out of whack. Meditation keeps your adrenaline and cortisol levels in check, but it doesn’t stop there. The relaxation technique also releases serotonin and oxytocin, feel-good hormones that boost your mood and keep your emotions stable. Instead of taking prescription medication to ward off depression or anxiety, meditating regularly may work just as well. As a bonus, the technique carries zero side effects.

Got the munchies? We’ve got satisfying snacks to boost your mood as well. Check out these 45 Energy Snacks to Boost your Mood.

5. Helps You Sleep

5 Ways Daily Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight sleep

Tossing and turning on the regular? Your lack of shut-eye could contribute to weight loss troubles. You see, adequate sleep is crucial for great health, and sleep deprivation can sabotage your weight loss progress. First, cortisol levels shoot through the roof, which can, in turn, pack on the pounds. Meanwhile, grehlin, a hormone that sends hunger signals to your brain, rises as well.

Fortunately, daily meditation can help you lose weight by balancing your circadian rhythms and helping you snag some quality ZZZ’s. The fantastic mind-body activity increases your melatonin levels, a hormone that controls your internal clock and determines when you fall asleep.

Getting your snooze on should definitely top your list of priorities. Check out 5 Ways Your Sleep Schedule could be Piling on the Pounds to learn more!

At the end of the day:

Meditation can dramatically boost your health and doesn’t cost you a cent. So why not give it a try? You may just find that daily meditation can help you lose weight!

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Ellie Krasner

Ellie is a full-time violinist living in Las Vegas, and a writer with an insatiable appetite for clean eating and fitness! She is a graduate of Binghamton University with degrees in English literature and violin, and loves investigating the world of healthy living.

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