You’re exercising 3-5 days each week, eating clean and drinking plenty of water but you’re still not losing weight. What could you possibly be doing wrong? Breathing, that’s what.
Did you know 9 out of 10 people aren’t breathing properly? Do this quick check from author and breathing coach Pam Grout: “put one hand on your chest, the other on your abdomen. Take a normal breath. If the chest hand goes up rather than out, you’re breathing wrong.”
One of the main reasons why exercise helps you lose weight is because it quadruples the rate that oxygen is delivered to your cells. This oxygen helps your body burn fat and is critical to weight loss, but many people are only getting 1⁄3 of the oxygen they need.
Think about how your body would feel if you only got 1⁄3 of the sleep or 1⁄3 of the food you needed? You wouldn’t last very long and your body, and your weight loss, would go into shut down mode. This is what’s happening to your fat burning centers when you breathe incorrectly, making it very difficult for you to lose weight.
Looking for more benefits? Proper breathing revs up your metabolism, lowers the stress chemicals that cause your body to retain fat and helps you control outside influences that turn you into an emotional eater.
If you’re ready to try it, the 1-4-2 breath is a breathing technique designed for weight loss. Breathe through your nose and count the seconds (that’s 1.) Hold it in your body for 4x as
long (that’s 4.) Exhale for twice as long (that’s 2.) Example: if your normal breath is 4 seconds, hold it in your lungs for 16 seconds and exhale for 8 seconds. Do 10 of these, twice each day and you’ll see results in no time!
