Mindfulness And Obesity | Conscious Eating For Healthy Weight Loss!
In the fast-paced life that has become part and parcel of modern times, an individual generally fails in taking his time and living the current situation with full admiration. Everyone is busy multitasking at every moment and the same is true during the consumption of food. People are busy watching TV, using phones, while consuming food mindlessly.
Mindfulness And Obesity
However, in recent times, the concept of mindfulness has gained much popularity in the health and nutrition sector due to its usefulness in the management of disordered eating patterns and potential in weight loss. It encourages one to maintain conscious awareness towards whatever be at focus, at a particular moment, non-judgmentally.
Does mindfulness help you lose weight?
As per numerous studies, it has been found that mindfulness can be much beneficial in successful weight loss. Just like exercising trains the body for better performance, mindfulness can teach the brain and the body to perform much better in terms of eating habits and patterns.
Mindfulness is the act of paying attention to what is happening at present. In relation to weight loss, it refers to maintaining focus and taking note mindfully of what one is consuming. It is also called mindful eating.
By practicing mindfulness, one can maintain oneself aware of what he is consuming and thereby pay attention to his food and hunger levels and control the craving and intake of food. As such it can be highly helpful and useful in ensuring success in weight loss and preventing unnecessary weight gain.
What is mindful eating for weight loss?
Mindful Eating as a practice is based on the concept of mindfulness. It is the practice of being more conscious and mindful about what one is eating, the effect it could have on the body as well as keeping a check on any excessive intake of food by being aware of what and how much one is eating. By being conscious of what and how much one consumes, this practice can be beneficial in keeping weight gain under check and instead contribute to weight loss.
Why is mindful eating better than dieting?
The chief reason why mindful eating is much better is that while strict dieting is a restrictive measure for weight loss, healthy and mindful eating is a freeing measure and does not involve a restriction on diet, instead it promotes a healthy and conscious diet.
In dieting, an individual has to involve a lot of sacrifice of delicious and delicious food and maintenance of self-control, as such, it is a highly restrictive way of weight loss and as time passes by, more and more cravings arise to break the diet and involve in enjoying the restricted food during dieting.
In comparison to dieting, mindful eating provides a much better alternative as the practice of mindful eating is much more relaxed and balanced. It does not restrict any intake of the food you love but involves a mindful intake of such food. It simply asks the individual to pay attention to what and how much one is consuming and what it makes him feel. Thus, Mindful eating is a much more freeing and fulfilling way of weight control and weight loss than dieting and just what one has to change is eating food with full attention and focus and understanding its effect on the body and mind.
Why do we practice mindful eating and how?
Everyone knows that losing weight, controlling calorie intake, and improving eating habits are of much importance. To control calorie intake and improve food habits, engaging mindfully in the consumption of food is required. Mindlessly eating food is bound to lead to poorer health and increased calorie intake, going against the weight loss goals.
The following are the reasons and benefits why one should involve in mindful eating:
- Controlling appetite: Eating quickly has been found to have links with weight gain, as per studies and slow eating, with weight loss as by eating slowly, one gives adequate time to body to recognize when it is satiated and full. Along with this, studies also found that distraction while eating, often results in excess calorie intake, resulting in weight gain, and more attention paid during consumption lead to adequate calorie consumption thus helping in keeping weight gain in check
- Keeping Cravings in check: It also helps in decreasing cravings. Craving results when one is not able to appreciate what one is consuming and craving for what he can’t consume at that moment. Eating mindfully helps in the identification of such emotion and adds positivity and satisfaction to what one is consuming.
- Improved Nutrition and Decreased stress: Consciousness of what one is consuming helps an individual in making better and healthy food choices and are likely to choose nutrient-rich food over unhealthy addictive foods. It also helps in decreasing stress and negative emotions about food and instead makes the individual enjoy the food better.
The practice of mindful eating involves:
- Avoiding Distractions while eating: Consuming the food in a slow manner and without any distraction by any kind of multi-tasking at the time of such consumption of food.
- Practicing Conscious eating: Paying attention to the hunger cues of the body and consuming only till the feeling of fullness of diet and stop consuming any bit more than satiation due to any cravings.
- Differentiating true hunger from cravings: Mindfully differentiating between true hunger and craving without the hunger for consuming food.
- Focus on the effect and level of satisfaction derived: Taking notice of the effect and satisfaction derived from some kind of food.
- Engagement of all the senses: Noticing the smell, taste, color, and all other features of the food which would help appreciate the food
Final thoughts
A free and positive method of weight loss would be liked by all. While dieting as a method of weight loss is much more restrictive, Mindful eating provides a free and easy approach to keep body weight gain in check and instead use consciousness to lose excess weight
FAQs
It is the practice of being more conscious and mindful about what one is eating, the effect it could have on the body as well as keeping a check on any excessive intake of food by being aware of what and how much one is eating.
The following are the benefits of mindful eating:
Controlling appetite
Keeping cravings in check
Improved nutrition and willpower
Decreased stress
Avoiding Distractions while eating
Practicing conscious eating
Focusing on the effect and satisfaction derived
Engaging all senses
Differing true hunger from cravings
