Lose weight through mindfulness
If you want to lose weight, you often try a diet. But more than 80 percent of all dieters return to their starting weight within five years. Why is that? Because the emotional component of eating too much is left out. At the University of Würzburg, researchers have successfully tested programs based on self-observation and mindfulness training. Why does mindfulness help to find the right weight? What if you become weak again while eating? We asked the psychologist Prof. Michael Macht of the University of Würzburg.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Why are mindfulness exercises so successful when it comes to eating?
Michael Power: Through the exercises, we become aware of behaviors that would otherwise occur without our conscious intervention? we realize more clearly the feelings involved in eating. Our self-observation is trained, the exercises help to structure our everyday life. Sometimes you even relax, but that's not really the goal.
What else can you do?
In a second step, the best way to find your own feelings is to find further ways. Sport can help here or once the unpleasant confrontation with the negative emotions, even in conversations with others.
How long does it take to get used to eating out of stress or lust?
First changes sometimes show up after six to eight weeks. But it is much more difficult not to fall back into the old patterns. So the crucial phase comes after the actual changeover.
How do you deal with a setback?
Just do not see any disaster in it! Setbacks are part of it. You have to learn to live with them. It makes sense to analyze setbacks and honestly wonder what was going on, how to react better next time. Many participants have successfully completed our programs and have stayed there. It pays to keep going!
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde test: What type of feeling are you?
What seduces you to eat? Find out with our test. He will also provide you with the appropriate strategies for weight loss through awareness (free for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde subscribers, otherwise 1.50 euros).
Read on
Norbert Seeger, Jochen Auer: Weight loss through mindfulness (with CD) - The 8-step ideal weight program (80 pages, 16,99 Euro, Graße und Unzer, from February 2014) Ronald Pierre Schweppe, Aljoscha A. Long: The ego diet: Serene lose weight and find the desired weight (160 pages, 14.99 euros, Südwest Verlag)
Ronald Pierre Schweppe u. a .: Minus 1 Diet - The cookbook: Easier to enjoy with the mindfulness formula (176 pages, 14.99 euros, Systemed Verlag)
Jan Chozen Bays: Mindful Through the Day - 53 Lightweight Exercises to Train Mindfulness (215 Pages, 14.95 Euros, Wind Horse)
Jan Thorsten Eßwein: Mindfulness training (80 pages plus exercise CD, 16,99 Euro, Graße and Unzer)
