Those who took part in activities designed to help them unwind, including meditation and yoga, could even lose weight without going on a diet.
A new study shows that learning to relax can help slimmers become thinner.

Those who took part in activities designed to help them unwind, including meditation and yoga, could even lose weight without going on a diet.

Scientists believe that feelings of stress and anxiety can help to increase the desire for surgery and fatty foods, which are high in calories.

Those who manage these feelings are more able to resist the temptation to indulge in unhealthy snacks.

Scientists spent two years studying 225 overweight or obese women asked to try a variety of activities to help them de-stress.

One third of the women took part in "mind-body techniques", which included meditation, deep-breathing, yoga and positive visualization, where participants are asked to imagine images of what they would like to happen in the future.

Another third concentrated on exercising as well as eating healthily.

The final group received information about nutrition in the post.

At the end of the study only those women who had practiced the relaxation techniques had managed to lose weight.

The findings, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, show that they were also on average happier and healthier than the women in the other two groups.

Dr Caroline Horwath, from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, who led the study, said that all three groups had been successful in preventing weight gain.

But "the most striking results" were among those who took part in the intensive relaxation programme, she said.

One average they lost five and a half pounds (2.5kg) in weight.

Dr Horwath added: "At the two-year mark, these women were the only ones to maintain the psychological and medical symptom improvements.

"The positive results are exciting, given the limited long-term success of traditional dieting approaches.

"By learning and practicing relaxation techniques as part of a wider lifestyle change programme, women have effective tools to manage stress and emotions without resorting to unhealthy eating."

She said that helping women to "break free from chronic dieting and make sustainable lifestyle changes" was the way to ensure better health over the long term.

The study also found that participants who were extremely focused on losing weight were more likely to lose interest and drop out early than other volunteers.

Read this the other day. It's moving quickly. Of course, it's also well known that the opposite to relaxation, stress, also can help shed weight, such as prolonged living in a war zone. Depends how much you want to lose weight. I've noticed some overweight people who are not getting much sex then get 6-12 months of heaps of sex also lose weight and look much healthier. This method is more enjoyable than war stress.

I've never been in a war zone but keeping your butt alive probably trumps the ol three meals a day routine for sure. If someone is lucky enough to get 6-12 months of heaps of sex that would leave very little time for eating er eating food.

C'mon longhaul, after a good romp it's often only a matter of time before the munchies hit and it's outta bed for a trip to the refrigerator. The combination of physical activity followed by exhausted relaxation is the perfect body conditioner, and all the food you want is allowed as long as you balance it with more sex. It should be compulsory for everyone of a mature age with a social welfare backup to provide partners to anyone not able to find their own. Obama is making changes, maybe he can include this.

Does this fall under the Health and Welfare budget?

In that case I should putting weight, not losing it.

What are you eating?

Decent homecooked lunches and dinners ... nothing fancy just good food.

Kaz maybe it's something to do with your metabolism.

Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. Very few people have a slow metabolism, and overweight individuals generally have fast metabolisms because their fat cells are consuming energy.
There are some factors that you can change, and some factors that you can't.
* Age - metabolism decreases five percent per decade after age 40[2]
* Sex - men generally burn calories more quickly than women because they have more muscle tissue[2]
* Heredity - you can inherit your metabolic rate from previous generations[2]
* Thyroid disorder - hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland) and hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland) can slow down or speed up metabolism, but only 3 and .3 percent of the population have hypo- and hyperthyroidism.
Extending the time between meals makes your body go into "starvation mode," which decreases your metabolism as a means to conserve energy and prevent starvation. Skipping meals does not help you cut calories or lose weight; in fact, people generally eat less overall when they eat small, frequent meals. In addition to having four to six small meals per day eating healthy snacks will also increase metabolism.
Depriving the body of water can encourage it to "hoard" rather than "burn". More than ninety percent of the chemical reactions in your body occur in water, so make sure to drink an appropriate amount of water.
Muscle burns more calories than fat does (73 more calories per kilogram per day, to be exact) so the more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate (RMR) will be. Every muscle cell that you gain is like a little factory that constantly burns calories for you, even while you sleep, and revs up when you exercise. This is the only way to increase RMR, which accounts for 60 to 70 percent of the calories you burn daily.