Last Updated on November 7, 2022 by
Meditation is often associated with most other activities, like Yoga and Peace. But did you know its one of the best ways to lose weight? Of course it is! Who would’ve thought? Meditation helps reduce stress, which means you’ll be less likely to eat when you’re not hungry. It also helps relieve pain and increases your sense of well-being which means you’ll enjoy eating food more than usual. You might even find yourself becoming spiritual after a while, and once you reach that stage your chest will start clearing out old pictures of you in that baggy shirt eating chips with dip (that’s just me).
Meditation has become quite popular in the last few years, and for good reason. It can help you reduce anxiety, improve focus and concentration, live a calmer life, and even change your response to difficult situations. By practicing meditation regularly you can learn to overcome difficult situations by changing your mindset and generally improve all areas of your life. One area that is often overlooked when discussing the benefits of meditation is weight loss. After all, if you want to take control of your weight, then this is the way to go. Here is why: I’m going to talk about Meditate For Weight Loss, make sure you read this article.
Meditate For Weight Loss

Your efforts around exercising and eating well are helping your blood pressure and your weight. Something else might also help: meditation.
Meditation — the practice of focusing your attention in order to find calm and clarity — can lower high blood pressure. It can also help you manage stress, which drives some people to eat.
“People often put on weight from trying to comfort themselves with food,” says Adam Perlman, MD, executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine.
Although there’s not a lot of research showing that meditation directly helps you lose weight, meditation does help you become more aware of your thoughts and actions, including those that relate to food.
For example, a research review showed that meditation can help with both binge eating and emotional eating.
“Any way to become more mindful will guide that process,” Perlman says.
“Focus on being a witness to your thoughts and not so much how long you need to practice.” — Geneen Roth
How to Meditate
There are many ways to meditate. The CDC says that most types of meditation have these four things in common:
- A quiet location. You can choose where to meditate — your favorite chair? On a walk? It’s up to you.
- A specific comfortable posture, such as sitting, lying down, standing, or walking.
- A focus of attention. You can focus on a word or phrase, your breath, or something else.
- An open attitude. It’s normal to have other thoughts while you meditate. Try not to get too interested in those thoughts. Keep bringing your attention back to your breath, phrase, or whatever else it is you’re focusing on.
Pick the place, time, and method that you want to try. You can also take a class to learn the basics.
Becoming a ‘Witness,’ Not a Judge
Meditating requires a commitment to stop and look within and around you, even if you have only a few moments, says Geneen Roth, author of the New York Times best-seller Women Food and God.
“The way I teach meditation and integrate it for myself is to focus on being a witness to your thoughts and not so much how long you need to practice,” Roth says. “You want to learn how to quiet your mind and sometimes avoid the stories you tell yourself, like you need to go eat cookies or that bag of chips.”
Try not to bring major expectations to meditation. Let it unfold without judgment.
Most people have an inner critic that’s running their lives, Roth says. To reframe your thinking, she recommends asking yourself, “What’s working?” when you wake up and again at the end of the day. “We get so caught up and don’t take the time to look around and notice what’s good,” she says.
One of the daily practices Roth recommends is taking 30 seconds to look around and see what’s in front of you. It’s a way to be present.
“Not only do you need to be present in the moment, but you need to be informed to make the right decisions — what to eat, what to avoid, what [are] the best exercises and lifestyle choices for someone with high blood pressure,” Perlman says. He calls it “informed mindfulness.”
What are the benefits of meditation for weight loss?

Meditation won’t make you lose weight overnight. But with a little practice, it can potentially have lasting effects on not only your weight, but also your thought patterns.
Sustainable weight loss
Meditation is linked to a variety of benefits. In terms of weight loss, mindfulness meditation seems to be the most helpful. A 2017 reviewTrusted Source of existing studies found that mindfulness meditation was an effective method for losing weight and changing eating habits.
Mindfulness meditation involves paying close attention to:
- where you are
- what you’re doing
- how you’re feeling in the present moment
During mindfulness meditation, you’ll acknowledge all of these aspects without judgment. Try to treat your actions and thoughts as just those — nothing else. Take stock of what you’re feeling and doing, but try not to classify anything as being good or bad. This becomes easier with regular practice.
Practicing mindfulness meditation can lead to long-term benefits, too. Compared to other dieters, those practicing mindfulness are more likely to keep the weight off, according to the 2017 review.
Less guilt and shame
Mindfulness meditation can be particularly helpful in curbing emotional and stress-related eating. By becoming more aware of your thoughts and emotions, you can recognize those times when you eat because you’re stressed, rather than hungry.
It’s also a good tool to prevent you from falling into the harmful spiral of shame and guilt that some people fall into when trying to change their eating habits. Mindfulness meditation involves recognizing your feelings and behaviors for what they are, without judging yourself.
This encourages you to forgive yourself for making mistakes, such as stress-eating a bag of potato chips. That forgiveness can also prevent you from catastrophizing, which is a fancy term for what happens when you decide to order a pizza since you already “screwed up” by eating a bag of chips.
How can I start meditating for weight loss?
Anyone with a mind and body can practice meditation. There’s no need for any special equipment or expensive classes. For many, the hardest part is simply finding the time. Try to start with something reasonable, such as 10 minutes a day or even every other day.
Make sure you have access to a quiet place during these 10 minutes. If you have children, you may want to squeeze it in before they wake up or after they go to bed to minimize distraction. You can even try doing it in the shower.
Once you’re in a quiet place, make yourself comfortable. You can sit or lie down in any position that feels easy.
Start by focusing on your breath, watching your chest or stomach as it rises and falls. Feel the air as it moves in and out of your mouth or nose. Listen to the sounds the air makes. Do this for a minute or two, until you start to feel more relaxed.
Next, with your eyes open or closed, follow these steps:
- Take a deep breath in. Hold it for several seconds.
- Slowly exhale and repeat.
- Breathe naturally.
- Observe your breath as it enters your nostrils, raises your chest, or moves your belly, but don’t alter it in any way.
- Continue focusing on your breath for 5 to 10 minutes.
- You’ll find your mind wandering, which is completely normal. Just acknowledge that your mind has wandered and return your attention to your breath.
- As you start to wrap up, reflect on how easily your mind wandered. Then, acknowledge how easy it was to bring your attention back to your breath.
Try to do this more days of the week than not. Keep in mind that it might not feel very effective the first few times you do it. But with regular practice, it’ll get easier and start to feel more natural.
Where can I find guided meditations?
If you’re curious about trying other types of meditation or just want some guidance, you can find a variety of guided meditations online.
When choosing a guided meditation online, try to stay away from those promising overnight results or offering hypnosis.
Here’s a guided mindfulness meditation from psychologist Tara Brach, PhD, to get you started.
Other mindfulness techniques
Here are a few other tips to help you take a mindfulness-based approach to weight loss:
- Slow down your meals. Focus on chewing slowly and recognizing the taste of each bite.
- Find the right time to eat. Avoid eating on the go or while multitasking.
- Learn to recognize hunger and fullness. If you aren’t hungry, don’t eat. If you’re full, don’t keep going. Try to listen to what your body is telling you.
- Recognize how certain foods make you feel. Try to pay attention to how you feel after eating certain foods. Which ones make you feel tired? Which ones make you feel energized?
- Forgive yourself. You thought that pint of ice cream would make you feel better, but it didn’t. That’s OK. Learn from it and move on.
- Make more thoughtful food choices. Spend more time thinking about what you’re going to eat before actually eating.
- Notice your cravings. Craving chocolate again? Acknowledging your cravings can help you resist them.
5 ways meditation can help promote a healthy relationship with eating
Meditation can help us become more mindful eaters and even address any emotional eating issues that might persist.
1. Remove the shame and guilt. For those who struggle with emotional eating, feeling stressed can lead to overeating to soothe or avoid these feelings. This can lead to guilt or shame. Break the cycle. Meditation not only helps reduce stress, which removes the trigger in the first place, but it also helps you become more aware of your emotions and feelings, so you can recognize those times when you’re eating when stressed versus when you’re actually hungry. Meditation has also been shown to increase our compassion, which may cause us to become more accepting of other people who may have different body types from our own.
2. Maintain weight loss and a healthy weight for the long haul. Meditation can help your weight loss efforts stick. While diet and exercise may help you reach your weight loss goals, meditation alongside healthy eating and exercise makes weight loss efforts sustainable.
3. Lower stress and inflammation levels. Meditation reduces cortisol and C-reactive protein levels, which is beneficial to our overall health and may help us achieve weight loss and maintain a healthy weight. Cortisol is associated with storing fat in our abdomen area (belly fat), and elevated C-reactive protein levels can be a sign of inflammation, which is at the root of many diseases including obesity.
4. Better control of cravings. If you struggle with emotional or binge eating, it can be tough to fight those intense food cravings. Research shows that mindfulness meditation can help us control emotional and binge eating.
5. Decrease our stress and anxiety. Losing weight takes a lot of effort, and keeping the weight off can be stressful, even leading to feelings of anxiety. Thirty days of using the Headspace app for daily meditation reduces stress by a third, so it is a proven tool.
6 mindful eating techniques to try
Mindful eating is about developing an awareness of your feelings around food, and your internal physical cues. It teaches you how to decipher between physical and emotional hunger. Need helpful tips to get started?
1. Ditch the distractions, including screens, when you’re eating. Turn off the TV, keep your phone off the dinner table, and step away from your computer.
2. Eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly. Try a simple check-in halfway through your meal to assess how you’re feeling. Are you still hungry? Are you beginning to feel full?
3. Enlist your senses. Make sure your senses are part of your mindful eating arsenal. Focus on the smell of your food, the taste, and the melding flavors. Make note of the different textures.
4. Pay attention to how the food you’re eating makes you feel. Do you feel energized? Sleepy? Are you experiencing any bloat or an upset stomach? Did your meal or snack keep you full, or are you hungry right afterwards?
5. Drop the judgment… of yourself. Eating mindfully can be complex, and it takes time. Don’t beat yourself up if you have a misstep. It’s all part of the process.
6. Stay in touch with how you’re feeling. Are you eating because you’re hungry, or are there feelings or emotions driving the craving?