If you want to lose and keep off extra weight, then you might need to do more than eat well and exercise often. In fact, the surprising key to losing body fat may have more to do with your mental health and awareness.

According to a recent study published in Frontiers in Endocrinology, researchers discovered that emotional support and mindfulness have a significant impact on reducing instances of overeating.

While working with 42 adults who were primarily women with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more (six of whom had undergone obesity surgery), researchers made it a priority to ensure that participants felt safe, supported, and free to express themselves over the course of a 10-week period of trying to lose weight.

“We wanted to teach and make the patients aware of the connection between weight and mental health,” Trine Tetlie Eik-Nes, an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, who led the study, explained in a statement. “The goal was for them to become more aware of the challenges they faced in everyday life and what strategies could help.”

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As a result, “participants were able to identify what it was about their mindsets and lifestyles that were triggering overeating,” Eik-Nes said. “Patients experienced a nearly 30 percent reduction in the number of overeating episodes and a significant improvement in their emotional issues, like inner turmoil, anxiety, depression, and irritability. In addition, the patients reported that they felt far less restricted in their social activities.”

Keith-Thomas Ayoob, EdD, RD, FAND, Associate Clinical Professor Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, tells Eat This, Not That! of the findings: “Emotional support can be incredibly helpful for losing weight but especially for keeping it off.”

For those who would like to become more mindful of their own situations when it comes to eating and weight loss, Dr. Ayoob says, “Assess your own eating environment. Not just at home, but exactly how you engage in eating during the day and week. You can’t know where to go or how to change until you know what your eating style is right now. Then look at what you would be willing to change.”

Dr. Ayoob also suggests “keeping a ‘food-emotion’ log to get a sense of what may be triggering overeating episodes or eating past the point of reasonable fullness.”

However, Morgyn Clair, MS, RDN, registered dietitian and author at Fit Healthy Momma, notes that while “the first step is to identify where the [psychological barriers to weight loss] might be occurring,” not everyone will be able to identify these barriers on their own.” In that case, they “may require the assistance of a professional like a mental health therapist or dietitian.”

To find out more about how your eating habits and mental health are connected, be sure to read Popular Foods That Are Supporting Your Mental Health, Says Expert.

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If you’re looking to master a new skill and improve your employability, you’ll no doubt be weighing up the pros and cons of home learning. Although virtual learning has historically been considered a second-rate way to study, there’s been a seismic shift in how remote learning has been viewed in recent years. Virtual learning is not just more accessible, it’s also incredibly flexible and more affordable.

A Direct Line Of Communication With Tutors

One of the biggest drawbacks of learning in a traditional classroom or lecture hall is that students aren’t able to connect directly with their tutors. If you’re pursuing education in a conventional setting, tutors will be time-poor and unable to commit to any follow-up questions. The infrastructure of online learning has redefined how students can communicate with their tutors. If you’re pursuing one-on-one virtual learning, you have the benefit of immediate feedback that is completely tailored to you. Live chat functionality and email correspondence are also hallmarks of virtual learning.

Improved Concentration And Focus

Provided you’ve a quiet space to work in, learning online can be much more rewarding than conventional study in a classroom. With less distractions to contend with, you can fully commit to a syllabus and gain a far better understanding of what you’re aiming to study. Improved focus is particularly crucial if you’re looking to pursue online language study.

Learning online is no longer a compromise. If you’re looking to take charge of your further education with a flexible solution that fits around your schedule, it’s arguably a more worthwhile alternative than traditional learning models. What’s more, online learning establishments are no longer frowned upon in favour of qualifications obtained from bricks and mortar institutions.

An Affordable Alternative

Even if you’ve secured financial support in the form of student loans, grants and bursaries, the overall cost of pursuing further education in a traditional setting can be expensive. Online learning avenues have made pursuing advanced qualifications and advanced skills more affordable and accessible to all. It’s not just course costs where you make a saving either. Consider the multitude of other expenses involved in traditional study. With virtual learning, you won’t need to shell out for regular travel costs, while everyday expenses are also greatly diminished. Beyond course costs, the only real investment involved in home learning includes a computer and reliable internet access, along with any course-specific software that may be required to undertake your studies.

Flexibility

Although many of us would like to boost our career prospects by pursuing further study, busy schedules are often a barrier to doing so. If you’re currently in employment, you may find it impossible to free up enough time in your daily schedule to visit an evening class or training establishment. Online learning not only negates you having to venture to an establishment far from your home, it also tends to be fairly flexible when it comes to those looking to pursue studies outside of conventional working hours. Many online tutors specialising in one-on-one training will be highly flexible with their own schedules, meaning you’re not locked into an ironclad arrangement with fixed starting times.

*In collaboration with Nathalie Simon

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Worldwide, the prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. Today, there are 650 million people who qualify as obese, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity can lead to serious health conditions, like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and treating obesity—that is, losing weight and keeping it off—is not easy.

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine endeavored to find the most effective way to maintain healthy weight loss. In a randomized clinical trial, the researchers looked at 215 participants with obesity and found that the most effective way to lose and maintain weight may be to initially control one’s diet and then combine moderate-to-vigorous exercise with appetite-reducing obesity medication.

The medication in question, an appetite-suppressing hormone called liraglutide, is prescribed in the U.S. under names like Saxenda and Trulicity. Liraglutide is an analog to a natural appetite-inhibiting hormone GLP-1, which is secreted by the intestines when we eat.

RELATED: 15 Underrated Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work

“Common side effects [of liraglutide] include nausea,” Professor Signe Sørensen Torekov, the lead researcher on the new study, tells Eat This, Not That! However, starting with a low dosage and increasing dosage slowly should help, she says.

Study participants were divided into four groups: two received placebo medication, and two received liraglutide. One of the groups receiving medication either performed vigorous exercise for 75 minutes a week or moderate activity for 150 minutes a week (or some combination of the two), while the other group did not have an exercise program. The same was true for the two placebo groups.

After a year, while participants in the placebo group with no exercise gained half their weight back, the participants who had exercise alone and medication alone both managed to maintain their weight loss. However, researchers found that the combination of exercise and liraglutide witnessed the most dramatic improvements. These participants lost more fat mass while retaining muscle mass. They also reported higher fitness ratings, reduced blood sugar levels, and improved quality of life.

While these results are promising, liraglutide is a prescription medication, and therefore not available to everyone. In fact, some registered dietitians, like Dr. Lisa Young, PhD, RDN, CDN may even advise against such appetite suppressants.

“I do not recommend appetite suppressants as your body gets used to them and you do not learn healthy behaviors,” she says.

As the study shows, even without liraglutide, participants who followed a moderate-to-vigorous exercise regimen were able to maintain their weight loss even without the appetite suppressant. Focusing on diet, as all the participants did during the first part of the study, is crucial.

“I recommend behavior modification, portion control, creating healthy habits, and choosing healthy foods which are not too calorie-dense. And of course, exercise is key too,” explains Young. “It’s important to create a lifestyle program you can sustain.”

For exercise tips, be sure to check out 3 Workouts Proven to Change Your Body Shape, Says Exercise Expert.

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Research shows that people tend to require more leisure time when they are stressed. This extra bit of relaxation is used to boost the drop in mood that can come with excess stress, and the resulting lift in mood can bring a decrease in stress and an increase in productivity and balance. So a reasonable amount of leisure time can be a good way to relieve stress and become more productive.

The main issue with using leisure time for stress relief is that we only have a set amount of time in the day, and this time is valuable. Increasing leisure time can feel counterproductive for busy people (which probably includes most people in need of stress relief). There’s a danger of spending too much time relaxing and thereby increasing the pressure busy people face as a result–there’s less time to get things done, so back comes the stress.

Here’s how you can use leisure time for stress relief while maintaining balance:

Be Aware Of Your Needs

There are two things that can help you to relax without throwing you into full procrastination mode: Knowing what your goals are for your leisure time and having a list in your head to meet these goals. Do you simply need a break from work because you’re becoming mentally fatigued? Or do you need to get yourself into a better mood? If you are aware of what your needs are, you’ll know when they’ve been met. Most of us benefit from doing something that gets us into a good mood. If you just need a quick mental break, read on, that’s addressed next in this article.

“It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.” ― Paulo Coelho

Find Fast-Acting Pick Me Ups

One important key to fitting leisure time into a busy schedule is to find leisure activities that meet your needs in a short amount of time. It may seem counter-intuitive to “rush” through leisure time, isn’t the whole point that you get to relax and forget about rushing for a while? However, if watching a half-hour comedy can give you an adequate sense of relaxation to meet your needs, it’s important to think of doing this instead of seeing a movie.

Finding quicker leisure activities that work for you and keeping them in mind for when you need them, leaves you with more time left over to do everything else that needs doing. Here are some quick-acting pick-me-up activities. You can use them to start your list and add to them as you find more activities you enjoy.

• Take a quick walk.
• Look at a funny video or two online.
• Call a friend for a few minutes.
• Dance to a few songs.
• Do a sudoku puzzle.
• Ask a kid to share their favorite joke.
• Have a coffee break.
• Write in a gratitude journal.
• Meditate for a few minutes.

Motivate Yourself In Positive Ways

Sometimes you have the urge to take a break but you need to get back on task and stay there as soon as you can. If you’ve taken a break and need to get back to being productive, it helps to find self-motivation before you jump back into your day. Getting in touch with your inner motivation can also help you to avoid feeling depleted at the mere thought of facing the day’s challenges, and delving into procrastination mode. 

But rather than beating yourself up for wanting to relax, or trying to motivate yourself with fear, here are some gentle ways to get yourself engaged in the idea of doing what needs to be done.

Review your accomplishments – When you think of the successes you’ve had already, you can find yourself wanting to do more. If you take a minute to think about all that you’ve done already, you can get yourself more excited about creating more of these accomplishments.

Think about what you’ll gain when you’re done – Why is it important for you to get back to your challenges? What do you gain? If you remind yourself of the rewards that come with getting yourself back on track, it’ll be easier to motivate yourself to cut the leisure time shorter so you can truly enjoy the rewards that come from being done.

Promise yourself rewards when you finish – If these built-in rewards aren’t enough to get you motivated to close your social media pages and get back to work, you may benefit from coming up with something extra. For example, I used to reward myself for going to the gym by letting myself get new clothes after a certain amount of visits until the workouts themselves felt like enough of a reward.

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ― Alan Cohen

Maintain Regular Resilience-Building Habits

How would you feel if you could make yourself less reactive to stress in general? When your stress levels are lower overall, you are less likely to need as much leisure time to balance out those stressful days–your stress levels will already be somewhat managed. Fortunately, it is possible to build resilience toward stress–certain habits really do make us less reactive to it over time. Maintaining some of these habits can take time, but not as much as you’d think, and they bring other benefits as well.

Here are some of the best ways to build resilience.

• Exercise regularly – It’s good for your body and your mind.
• Try meditation – It’s simpler than you may think, and it really works!
• Gratitude journaling – It can really build positive thinking and relieve stress. Give it a try.

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Meditation is a hot topic nowadays.

So many people swear by its benefits, and maybe you”ve already discovered some yourself.

Perhaps you’ve also found solace in prayer — or you know someone who has. 

What if you pray and meditate?

As you’ll see further on, for all their differences, the two are not mutually exclusive.

Praying and meditation can even complement each other.

So, how are they different?

And what’s with the stigma against meditation in Christian circles?

What is the Difference Between Prayer and Meditation? 

Before exploring the differences between praying and meditation, let’s address a question that often comes up: Can people who pray to God still meditate? More specifically, can Christians meditate? 

It’s understandable, given the widespread confusion as to what meditation really is.

So, allow us to clear up a few things:

• Nothing about meditation is anti-Christian or anti-monotheism.
• Both prayer and meditation help in cultivating gratitude and peace of heart
• Prayer can deepen your meditation — and vice-versa. 

In this post, you’ll find no reason to abandon either practice. In fact, we encourage you to try both and to find the methods and approaches that help you most. 

Why limit yourself to one when they play together so well?

Can You Pray While Meditating? 

While prayer and meditation are different, as you’ll see more clearly further on, it is possible to combine the two in a meditation prayer — or praying meditation. 

The Christian Bible is full of references to meditation, including this well-known prescription: 

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8

To dwell on words is to meditate on them. Christians, as a rule, don’t have a problem with this type of meditation, which is more about chosen thoughts than involuntary ones. 

By contrast, mindfulness meditation doesn’t impose thoughts on the present; it acknowledges and accepts whatever is already there. 

A praying meditation can make room for both. 

Meditation vs. Prayer: 11 Key Differences 

While meditation and prayer have some benefits in common, here are 11 key differences that set them apart. 

1. Prayer goes outward. Meditation goes inward.

With prayer, you’re seeking a connection with someone or something outside yourself. This someone is typically a deity or spirit guide of some kind. 

With meditation, you connect with yourself — with your intuition or internal guidance system. You don’t need words, but if it helps, you can repeat a mantra. 

All regrets about the past and worries about the future fall away. You’re left with your present self and its present thoughts, sensations, and feelings. 

2. Prayer depends on religious faith. Meditation does not. 

In prayer, you address external deities or spirit guides. A prerequisite to prayer, then, is a belief in those beings. Take away the belief in any external guide or benefactor, and you take away the reason for prayer. 

Meditation doesn’t require belief in a personal God or benevolent spiritual entity. You’re tapping into your own inner wisdom, not asking other minds for guidance. 

3. Prayer is considered a requirement for some religions. Meditation is not.

In many religions, prayer is considered a requirement. It’s something expected of religious adherents who take their faith seriously. For a religious person, to be devout is to be prayerful (and vice-versa). 

Meditation is not a required practice for anyone, though it brings nothing but benefits to those who make a habit of it. 

4. Prayer teaches the duality of God and believer; meditation teaches oneness.

In prayer, two people are interacting with each other. In meditation, there is only one. 

With prayers, the duality between God and believer is essential to the relationship you’re trying to build. 

With meditation, the oneness between you and your inner guide is essential to the attitude of listening, acceptance, and self-love. 

In practicing this attitude toward yourself, you become better at listening, accepting, and loving others. 

5. Prayer teaches childlike submission toward God; meditation does not.

When you’re praying, you assume a submissive role — whether as a child to a parent or a student to a teacher. 

Meditation, on the other hand, doesn’t require a submissive attitude. If you believe in a spiritual being larger than yourself (but also part of you), you’re sitting in their company. 

You do this not as a supplicant but as a trusting extension of their love and wisdom. 

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6. Prayer is speaking. Meditation is listening. 

With prayer, you’re speaking to someone. You’re using words of your own or prayers formulated by others to address a spiritual being external to and more powerful than yourself. 

With meditation, you listen to what’s going on in your mind and heart — what you’re thinking and feeling. You also pay attention to bodily sensations and impressions from your environment. Words are unnecessary. 

7. Prayer involves movement. Meditation is about stillness. 

While you might adopt a specific posture for meditation, you’re not required to. Meditation is about stillness, not movement. 

Prayer often involves specific postures (prostration and kneeling being the most common), gestures with the hands, and an uplifting of the face toward heaven. 

Christians believe the way you pray influences what you believe (lex orandi lex credendi). Bodily movement and postures are as much a part of the prayer as the words spoken. 

8. Prayer is asking. Meditation is accepting. 

With prayer, you’re usually asking for something you don’t yet have or asking for something to happen (or not happen). You’re petitioning for a benefit you seek. 

Meditation is more about becoming aware of all that’s going on inside you and in your immediate environment. 

Like sensations, thoughts come and go without your control; the point of meditation is to accept those transient thoughts and feelings without judgment.

9. Prayer is relational. Meditation is individual. 

Prayer involves a relationship between the petitioner and the one being petitioned. The goal is to build on that relationship to encourage honesty, childlike audacity, and trust.

Meditation is an individual experience, independent of any relationship other than the one you have with yourself. 

That said, a habit of meditation can benefit every relationship you have. 

10. Prayer is easy for youth. Meditation requires some maturity. 

Prayer is an easy thing for youth to learn. As soon as children in religious families learn to talk, their parents teach them how to say their prayers. 

On the other hand, meditation requires some maturity and is likely beyond the patience of the average toddler. 

School-aged children can learn the benefits of meditation as part of their education, without reference to any religion or spiritual practice.

11. Prayer addresses past, present, and future. Meditation is present-focused.

When you pray, you touch the past, present, and future. You might confess a past sin, remark on a present situation, or ask for a future blessing. 

Meditation is focused entirely on the present moment and all the thoughts, feelings, and sensations you experience in that moment. It doesn’t look to the future or revisit the past. The only reality is the present one. 

It doesn’t have to be meditation vs. prayer. They can exist together.

Though prayer is directed to someone outside yourself, you don’t have to embrace religion to pray. Belief in a loving and present creator doesn’t require religion. 

If you believe in a god that is part of you, apart from you and filling everything and everyone in the universe all at the same time, you can address this entity in prayer as easily as you connect with them in meditation. 

There is no contradiction — or there doesn’t have to be. 

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