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With over 70% of adults in the nation overweight or obese, the desire to drop pounds is a pervasive health concern. When a person manages to lose a few pounds, their quest tends to intensify: How do I keep it off?
GLP-1 drugs are surging as a quick way to shed unwanted pounds, but their long-term safety and efficacy as a weight-loss solution remains unclear.
Key points:
- Obesity is a global epidemic. In the United States alone, 70% of adults are overweight or obese.
- A study examined the feasibility of a mindfulness intervention to prevent weight regain in adults who had shed 7% of their body mass over the previous two months.
- Results showed all participants in the seven-member group maintained their weight loss over the span of the eight-week mindfulness curriculum.
Can learning new habits lead to better impulse control and changed behaviors, offering a pharmacological-free route to the “holy grail” of weight maintenance? Enter mindfulness, a practice rooted in Buddhist meditation techniques.
Mindfulness and Metabolic Syndrome
CU Anschutz was recently part of a multisite trial that examined whether a habit-based lifestyle program, including mindfulness practices, can produce sustained 24-month remission from metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is an array of conditions – including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol/triglyceride levels – that sharply increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, involved 618 participants and four cohorts. At CU Anschutz, the four cohorts received a six-month, weekly to bi-weekly lifestyle intervention, followed by 18 monthly maintenance contacts.
In addition to teaching the participants how to notice behaviors and take pauses during their daily life, the intervention focused on separating judgments from emotions. “We often think about our emotions and thoughts, like saying, ‘I wish I weren’t so worried,’ or ‘It’s really bad to feel sad and cry,’” said Elizabeth Chamberlain, PhD, a CU Anschutz assistant professor of psychiatry and director of well-being programs at the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. “We all have these stories and narratives about how we are supposed to feel. Through mindfulness practice, we begin to observe those states without putting judgments to it.”
The study results showed that this habit-based lifestyle program can reliably produce sustained 24-month remission of metabolic syndrome, a growing health problem.
Recently, a small group of research participants at CU Anschutz successfully harnessed mindfulness skills to maintain their weight loss during a curriculum-based intervention. The eight-week, single-arm pilot and feasibility study, published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, involved seven women, ages 18 to 65, who had dropped 7% of their body mass over the previous two months.
The women then completed the KORU Mindfulness Program at the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. The intervention included meditation, body scans, mindfulness of routine activities, mindful eating and group discussions.
“The whole point of mindfulness is to learn how to notice subtle sensations and thoughts and feelings before they get really big,” said Elizabeth Chamberlain, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, and study co-author.
Daily life is filled with stressors and emotional triggers that prompt people to mindlessly eat even when they aren’t hungry, she said. “This is the practice of how to notice, pause and ground yourself in the moment without getting caught up in the stories of what you think is happening.”
In the following Q&A, Chamberlain explains the basics of mindfulness, how mindfulness practices help shape lifestyle behavior changes, and where this field of study is headed.
The interview was condensed for length and clarity.
