If you are ready to try belly dancing in order to gain specific physical benefits, you’ll quickly learn that the art of belly dancing has the potential to tone your entire body! Although this form of exercise is labeled with the term “belly,” participants engaging in belly dancing are using extensive groups of muscles throughout regions of the body.

Fitness Benefits of Belly Dancing

According to studies and reports, individuals engaging in belly dancing activities are able to burn an estimated 300 calories per hour. With a steady burn of calories, a dieter will be able to boost her weight loss results with greater efficiency.

Adding to the calorie loss perks, belly dancing also engages muscles throughout the body. As the muscles gradually become more toned and strengthened, the body’s metabolism will quickly (and naturally) become stronger as well! With a strong metabolism, your body will naturally burn off more calories each day without any extra work or effort.

Getting Started

If you’re ready to begin burning fat and improving your physique, you can participate in belly dancing courses at available fitness studios, dance schools, and / or community centers. Belly dancing has become increasingly popular in recent years, therefore, most dieters should be able to find access to a class at a nearby populated area.

If classes are not accessible, however, dieters can still participate to gain benefits. For at home support, dieters can choose from an array of belly dancing DVDs and videos, which help guide participants with specific instructions and step by step guidelines.

When you’re ready to begin your belly dancing work, you’ll notice that the exercise does not force your body into any strenuous or painful motions. In fact, since belly dancing is a non-impact exercise, individuals who often experience pain from running, biking, or other related activities may encounter a far more comfortable physical response from the dancing.

Best of all, if you have struggled to boost your body’s muscle strength and tone due to injuries or painful responses, belly dancing will allow you to engage muscle tissues throughout your body with little to no pain and stress. With gentle muscle-boosting movements, such as holding one’s arms above one’s head for durations of time, dropping and swaying the hips, and so forth, muscles are safely engaged without a serious risk of injury!

Dancing for the Most Dramatic Results

If you’re hoping to boost your results from belly dancing, experts recommend that participants alter their belly dancing with alternative exercises. For example, a dieter can engage in belly dancing 2-4 times each week. On the non-dancing days, a dieter can work on exercises for strength training, aerobic activities, and / or flexibility. These alternate activities can include options such as:

• Yoga
• Biking
• Running / jogging
• Weight lifting
• Swimming

Since belly dancing specifically serves to boost the strength of your smaller muscle groups throughout your hips, abdominals, back, and arms, alternating your belly dancing with other challenging activities should stimulate the most significant physical results.

If you’re seeking a new, fun, and creative form of exercise, belly dancing may be an ideal option! As belly dancing requires an array of physical movements and muscular demands, individuals engaging in belly dancing exercises are able to enjoy an array of weight loss and physical benefits.

What is Belly Dancing?

While belly dancing often carries the incorrect connotation of sexually removing one’s clothes, the art of belly dancing is actually far less erotic. Raks Sharki, which is the formal name for belly dance, involves specific movements that are to be performed with elegance and grace:

• The hip drops, rolls, and pivots. Specifically, after the hip is dropped, the hip is rotated in circles of figure eights, and gradually lead into a shimmy
• Muscle groups in the body’s core (such as the abdomen and buttocks) become controlled and engaged
• Various muscles are engaged (with an instructor’s guidance) to allow for movements that are completely natural to a woman’s body
• The belly is rolled in a controlled manner, boosting the body’s core strength and posture

With its many different steps and required efforts, many medical experts even suggest belly dancing as a form of physical therapy for patients recovering from specific injuries! In fact, doctors and studies have even found that belly dancing can provide an array of additional services and perks.

Most popularly, belly dancing is used to boost weight loss results, as the various exercise movements help to increase the body’s blood flow and muscular response. With exercises that use the body’s legs, hips, abdominals, and arms, engaging in belly dancing techniques can provide women with full body improvements.

The Benefits of Belly Dancing

• Weight loss / increased metabolism (with consistent practice)
• Improves abdominal strength and digestion health / functioning (as the movements help move food through the digestive tract with greater ease)
• Improved posture / back health
• Improved full body muscle tone, as the various movements stimulate responses in muscle groups, cartilage, and ligaments
• With the dropping, rolling, and shimmy motions of the hips, the body’s pelvis is tipped forward, which helps prevent and alleviate lower back pain / problems
• The movements can help alleviate unnatural curves of the spine
• Enhanced muscle tone, flexibility, and balance
• Arms and shoulders are toned and engaged with various movements (including circles, lifts, and other gestures)
• With its calming effects, belly dancing can help reduce symptoms / problems associated with stress
• With the belly dancing maneuvers practiced on one’s feet, the belly dancing activities are classified as weight bearing exercises. These forms of exercise can help prevent osteoporosis, as bearing weight helps to strengthen bones
• Belly dancing can improve an individual’s confidence and esteem
• Specific Raks Sharki movements (which are specifically designed to accommodate for a woman’s natural movements), has been known to provide women with helpful prenatal exercises. In fact, the pelvic / hip movements used during belly dancing activities can help foster an easier and more natural childbirth

If you feel you’ve exhausted every weight loss method, fad diet, and exercise program with no results, then you may be able to gain benefits from hypnotherapy. As many individuals who are seeking to boost weight loss results use hypnosis to overcome negative eating habits, many experts assert that hypnotherapy can be a “miracle weight loss cure” for struggling dieters.

Hypnosis and Weight Loss

While the scientific studies regarding the power of hypnosis and weight loss are mixed, experts who support hypnosis therapy argue that such processes allow the mind to overcome its negative barriers.

As hypnosis allows the mind to enter into a different / altered state of consciousness, experts claim that the mind is able to focus in on suggestions with greater power. As such, when a hypnotherapist helps a patient alter his or her conscious state, the therapist can make repeated suggestions about healthier habits that will promote weight loss.

How Does Hypnosis Work?

Before experimenting with hypnosis, dieters should be sure that their hypnotherapy of choice is reputable and highly qualified. With an esteemed hypnotherapist’s guidance, you will be put under hypnosis through common techniques, including verbal repetition and / or the use of mental images.

As you are hypnotized, a therapist will help your mind more keenly focus on his suggestions / commands. For example, if you have the unhealthy compulsion to eat in the middle of the night, a hypnotherapist may allow your mind to break this pattern as he / she states specific suggestions while you are in your hypnotic state.

Adding to hypnotherapy, many struggling dieters have gained benefits with the additional support of cognitive behavioral therapy. Some mental health experts argue that the combination of hypnotherapy and cognitive therapy can stimulate the best weight loss results for dieters struggling to control their weight.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, which can also be guided with a mental health expert, helps patients address dysfunctional behaviors and / or feelings. By addressing these issues, a therapist will help the patient to set and achieve specific goals using a cognitive, systematic strategy.

Additional Hypnotherapy and Cognitive Weight Loss Tools

While most experts suggest that dieters seek one-on-one professional guidance for hypnotherapy or mental health services, dieters who want to try a more personal and confidential approach can explore a variety of options. To gain benefits from hypnotherapy / mental therapy at home, dieters can utilize resources such as:

• Hypnotherapy CDs
• Hypnotherapy DVDs
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy books (audio and print)
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy workbooks (which often involve journaling, “homework tasks,” and other assignments)
• Group therapy / group hypnotherapy

Ultimately, whether a dieter chooses between professional guidance or at home services, dieters should know that there is no affirmative scientific answer as to whether or not hypnotherapy is an absolute weight loss cure. While many therapists / products will “guarantee results,” dieters should be aware that individual responses and results will vary.

Emotional eating is a serious problem plaguing millions of dieters around the world. As emotional eating can lead to obesity and an array of obesity-related issues, individuals struggling with any related symptoms may need to seek professional support and treatment.

What is Emotional Eating?

While, ideally, the body signals its hunger signs when it is need of calories / energy to maintain its physical functioning, emotional eating is triggered by a different catalyst. Unlike the body’s natural hunger signals, emotional eating signals are triggered by internal / mental factors, and can often feel uncontrollable. For example, some of the most common triggers of emotional eating include:

• Stress / anxiety
• Loneliness / low self esteem / insecurity
• Anger / frustration
• PMS
• Sadness / depression
• Personal trauma (including a loved one’s death, previous / current physical, verbal, or sexual abuse)

Symptoms of Emotional Eating

While emotional eating can be caused by a number of catalysts, the symptoms of emotional eating are identifiable in a larger spectrum. If you experience the following eating habits / symptoms, then you may be coping with problems associated with emotional eating:

• You feel sudden urges of hunger (as the natural and physical signs of hunger should develop slowly). Hunger from emotional causes most commonly feels urgent and sudden
• Your body craves specific (often unhealthy) foods, especially carbohydrates and / or sugars
• You experience an urgency to eat, which can even lead to inconvenient choices. For example, if you drive to the grocery store for food late at night, or if you miss out on social opportunities in order to feed your cravings, then you may be experiencing symptoms of emotional eating. While natural and physical signs of hunger can be fed after a reasonable delay, emotional triggers of eating create a sense of urgency in order to be fed almost immediately
• You eat unconsciously, where you may be unaware of how much you are eating, or you are eating while not even realizing it (zoning out). This often causes some individuals to consume foods without even tasting the products, as the food is thoughtlessly consumed without full mental acknowledgement
• You eat when you feel upset and / or after an upsetting situation or experience
• Your body rarely feels full, or you find yourself unable to stop eating even if you do notice signals of fullness. Paired with this, you may even feel that you’re unable to satisfy your feelings of hunger
• You feel guilty after you eat / overeat
• Your hunger is driven by food cravings instead of by physical and natural causes. For example, if you find yourself obsessed with thoughts of a certain food, such as ice cream, and you cannot let go of the craving until its satisfied, then emotional triggers could be the cause.

Natural signs of hunger are usually satiated with alternative foods, even if the ideal food of choice is not available (thus, even if you wanted ice cream, having a piece of fruit would calm your hunger signals and would not cause you to continually obsess over thoughts of the ice cream)