Mindfulness training shows promise for maintaining weight loss
Can mindfulness training help overweight people shed pounds and keep them off?聽 91社区 researchers surveyed the growing body of studies investigating that question, and came away encouraged.
Kimberly Carri猫re, B盲rbel Kn盲uper and Bassam Khoury examined 19 studies conducted over the past decade. Mindfulness interventions in these studies involved either formal meditation, informal mindfulness strategies that focused on eating activity, or some combination of these two approaches.
The researchers found that:
- Interventions based on mindfulness proved 鈥渕oderately effective for weight loss鈥� and 鈥渓argely effective in reducing obesity-related eating behaviours.鈥�
- Initially, when compared to participants treated with diet and exercise-based 鈥渓ifestyle-change鈥� interventions, those who received mindfulness training lost less weight by the end of the program (3.3% of their initial body weight, compared with a 4.7% decrease for the former group.)
- Yet, at follow-up examinations,聽mindfulness participants had continued to lose weight, bringing their average weight loss to 3.5% of their initial body weight, while those in the 鈥渓ifestyle-change鈥� programs regained some weight.
The findings, published in the World Obesity Federation journal Obesity Reviews, are 鈥渆ncouraging鈥� and 鈥渉ighlight the potential of using mindfulness training to support weight loss,鈥� says Carri猫re, a doctoral student in Prof. Kn盲uper鈥檚 Health Psychology Lab in the Department of Psychology. 鈥淲e recommend that further research investigate how integrating mindfulness training into lifestyle-change programs improves weight-loss maintenance.鈥�
鈥淢indfulness-based interventions for weight loss: a systematic review and meta-analysis,鈥� K. Carri猫re, et al. Obesity Reviews, published online Oct. 27, 2017.
DOI: 10.1111/obr.12623
