Research confirm that relaxation techniques can help women in weight loss!
Feb 27, 2009 3 Comments »
Preventive Medicine, an American journal published a research conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Otago, New Zealand. This research made an interesting revelation that women can keep their weight under control or even reduce if they include relaxation techniques. The authors suggested that women who have undergone non-dieting intervention to keep the weight off can maintain it for a longer duration if they include relaxation techniques and not allow themselves to regain the lost weight.
This confirmation came after a two-year follow-up research project of Otago to test the efficacy of non-dieting intervention programs in terms of achieving better lifestyle behaviors and reducing medical symptoms & psychological distress.
This study involved 225 Dunedin women with a BMI of 28. All these women were placed in one of the three 10 week intervention programmes. The objective of all the three 10 week programmes were to help women shift their focus from analyzing caloric consumption and body weight to focusing on lifestyle changes to enjoy a balanced life whether or not they loose weight.
According to Dr. Caroline Harwath (Department of Human Nutrition), women in all the three programmes did not gain any further weight even after giving up dieting, during this two-year period. This according to Dr. Caroline, is a very positive outcome for a group that was susceptible to eventual weight gain.
One of the three programmes also included intensive training on relaxation techniques, apart from helping the participants to shift their focus towards lifestyle changes. This group, in Dr. Harwath’s opinion, was the most successful in maintaining the same level of improvements at the two-year follow up in terms of psychological and medical symptoms as they had showed at the end of the first year.
Dr. Harwath warns that emotional distress and negativity can cause a woman to overeat and indulge in sugary and high-caloric food. With the help of relaxation techniques, such women can gain the required inner strength to grapple with stress and emotion, without having to indulge in overeating.
The relaxation techniques included progressive muscle relaxation, abdominal breathing, and visualization and these techniques were adapted from a Harvard Mind-Body Medical Institute programme.
The most interesting aspect of this study was that its main objective was not to curb obesity in any way. But the two-year study opened up a positive indication where women who practiced relaxation techniques regularly could manage to reduce about 2.5 kg at the end of this period.
Dr. Harwath feels that this study though not significant enough statistically, it nevertheless gives a positive outcome and counters the short-term success of non-dieting interventions. Researchers feel that including relaxation techniques can help in leading a healthy lifestyle even if weight loss is not achieved.
Posted by admin | Tags: Health and Fitness, Lifestyle, Weight Facts
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February 27th, 2009 at 5:07 am
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February 27th, 2009 at 8:34 am
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