Paying Attention Can Help You Lose Weight
By Elizabeth Barker
When it comes to slimming down, eating mindfully might be just as effective as sticking to a standard weight-loss program. That’s the finding of a new study from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which compared a mindful-eating program with nutrition-based guidelines in its potential to promote weight loss among adults with type 2 diabetes.
For eight weeks, 27 study members took part in a program focused on tuning into their hunger levels before eating, bringing more awareness and attention to their meals, and breaking the habit of continuing to eat even after fullness sets in. Meanwhile, the study’s remaining 25 participants were assigned to a program that involved choosing healthy fats and carbohydrates, controlling their portion sizes and getting regular exercise. By the end of the three-month study, members of both groups had dropped about the same amount of weight (an average of 3 ½ pounds to six pounds) and significantly lowered their blood sugar levels.
While getting smart about nutrition is essential to weight loss, notes lead study author Carla Miller, mindful eating can go a long way in dealing with everyday factors that tend to sabotage diets. “We have so many environmental cues to eat in America that we’ve tuned out our normal physiological signals to eat,” Miller explains. “Being mindful means stopping long enough to become aware of these physiological cues.”
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1 Comment
I love this. I think about mindful eating at almost every meal. It helps me to eat slower, to notice my food, and to put more care into cooking my food because I feel as if I relate to it more deeply. A great thing to do!