Mindfulness is the latest technique to be used in trying to combat obesity and prevent weight gain.
Mastering simple mindful eating and stress reduction techniques can help keep off those extra pounds even without dieting.
Women who mastered the technique were found to lose deep belly fat – the fat that lies just under the skin and is associated with a high risk of developing heart disease or diabetes.
“You’re training the mind to notice, but to not automatically react based on habitual patterns – not to reach for a candy bar in response to feeling anger, for example” said researcher Dr Jennifer Daubenmier from the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.
“If you can first recognise what you are feeling before you act, you have a greater chance of making a wiser decision.”
The study is part of on-going research into how stress and the stress hormone cortisol are linked to eating behaviour, fat and health.
The women who participated were not on a calorie restricted diet. The attended nine weekly sessions, each lasting two and a half hours, where they learned stress reduction techniques.
They also learned how to be more aware of their eating by recognising bodily sensations like hunger, fullness and taste satisfaction.
At week six they attended an intensive seven hour silent meditation retreat.
They were asked to set aside 30 minutes daily for meditation exercises and to practice mindful eating during meals.
Researchers used a scientifically tested survey to gauge psychological stress before and after the four-month study and recorded the women’s fat and cortisol levels.
For women in the treatment group, changes in body awareness, chronic stress, cortisol secretion and abdominal fat were clearly linked.
Those who had greater improvements in listening to their bodies’ cues, or greater reductions in stress or cortisol, experienced the greatest reductions in abdominal fat.
Obese women in the study who received the mindfulness training had significant reductions in cortisol after awakening and also maintained their total body weight, compared to women in the waitlist group, who had stable cortisol levels and continued to gain weight.
