7 Essential Oils for Weight Loss: Natural Weight Management

From shedding some extra pounds to seriously shaking off weight, getting fit and getting healthy top most resolution lists, and using essential oils for weight loss should be part of your journey! Find out how essential oils can support your weight loss efforts, boost energy levels, manage food cravings, and more.

Getting Serious about Weight Loss Efforts

Before we go any further, it’s important to call out the elephant in the room here: there is no magic easy button. There’s very little research on essential oils that are good for weight loss, although this post will help get you started.

When it comes down to it, nothing beats good old-fashioned food choices and body movement for an effective weight loss program. With that out of the way, we can turn our attention back to the roles essential oils will play in helping you reach a healthy body weight level. If you want more guided meal plans to drop unwanted pounds quickly, check out the Fast Track recipes in our Essential Oils Diet book.

You already know that there’s no shortcut. If you think there is, you’re bound to be disappointed. Instead of looking for a magic oil to melt away the excess weight, let’s look at what we know about a handful of essential oils for weight loss to see how they can support our efforts for a healthy weight management program. With all of the tools God left at our disposal, we are without excuse for a healthy and Abundant Life!

7 Essential Oils for Weight Loss

Essential oils play a supportive role in healthy weight loss in so many ways. For supporting weight loss efforts, this list is just a starting point – get creative with your oil “stash” to see what might help you achieve your body fat goals.

Maintaining a natural, holistic lifestyle is crucial to being healthy and the key to preventing weight gain. One of my favorite ways is to drink matcha green tea and make my favorite fat-burning matcha green tea latte powered by essential oils!

Like I always say, “Eating at McDonald’s and using essential oils is like taking one step forward and two steps back!” so be sure to focus on abundant life-giving eating and exercise habits when incorporating essential oil therapy into your life!

1. Lime Essential Oil

Of the most well-researched citrus oils, lime has had very promising results regarding weight loss and metabolic disorders. One study published in 2010 observed lime essential oil in both assisting weight loss and preventing weight gain. The study concluded: The data obtained in this study suggested that lime essential oil plays an important role in weight loss and could be useful in the treatment of drug-induced obesity and related diseases. (1) For anyone who has packed on weight after a procedure or prescription, this comes as welcome news!

Application: Include lime essential oil in culinary recipes, topical formulas, and diffusion blends to maximize how to use it throughout the day.

2. Grapefruit Essential Oil

Another much-loved citrus oil, grapefruit, shatters our expectations of what a natural approach to weight loss should be. Instead of yet another thing to drink, eat, or take, grapefruit oil seems to be just as effective in other ways. In evaluating the effects that grapefruit and lavender essential oils have after simply being smelled, researchers found that nerve impulses were affected extensively, leading to fat-burning and appetite-reducing benefits. (2) Topically, grapefruit oil is a cosmetic boost during healthy diet efforts. As part of a topical blend massaged onto the abdomen, grapefruit essential oil weight loss contributed to reduced waist circumferences and composition changes, boosting the self-image of women who participated. (3)

Application: Include grapefruit essential oil weight loss in lotion and massage oil blends, and diffuse it for digestive support before and during meals.

3. Cinnamon Essential Oil

The primary evaluation for cinnamon in various forms centers around diabetes itself, and cinnamon oil has been able to modify glycemic control in those cases. Additionally, researchers observed in one recent study some pancreatic protection – the pancreas being our center for insulin regulation and maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. (4) For diabetics, monitoring food intake and maintaining a healthy weight is paramount. Glycemic control is part of the process. For everyone else, protecting the pancreas and helping the body better deal with glucose can be beneficial for weight loss, as well.

Application: Enjoy a drop or two diffused in stimulating weight loss blends or diluted into culinary or internal preparations. Combine with other essential oils to support diabetes for more blood sugar control options.

4. Peppermint Essential Oil

Considered a mild stimulant, peppermint essential oil has been studied for its ability to improve athletic performance and endurance. This can help you develop a more regular exercise routine. Baby steps and good choices will get you to your goals, though, and that’s where peppermint comes into play for weight loss.

As a digestive herb, the peppermint plant has been enjoyed with meals in many cultures and for countless generations. As an inhaled essential oil, it has another suggested digestive purpose: affecting appetite, sugar cravings, and caloric intake for weight loss. (5)

Application: Diffuse with grapefruit for a bright scent that may also brighten up your day and help you beat sugar cravings.

5. Cardamom Essential Oil

Indicated in traditional and folk uses to support weight loss goals, one suspected reason behind this may be cardamom’s gastroprotective effects. As a digestive oil, cardamom has been known to protect the stomach against ulcers and damage. (6) Weight loss and appetite control begins and ends in the stomach, not only what you eat, but how your body uses it. Damage in the stomach and the gut can put a damper on even the best diet. Take care of your digestive health with cardamom essential oil, and your gut will take care of you!

Application: Culinary preparations or dilution into a capsule. As with all oils indicated for internal use, one or two drops at a time are more than sufficient.

6. Cumin Essential Oil

We don’t know a lot about cumin essential oil yet, but what we do know is promising. The whole herb, for example, is often used to combat inflammation and diabetes. It’s this direction that researchers followed in 2005. In evaluating the chemical composition of cumin seeds, the study was able to pinpoint specific ways in which cumin – notably, some of the compounds found in the essential oil – affects the body’s blood sugar response. (7) Cumin is considered a digestive herb and essential oil, and it’s certainly worth trying out in your weight loss efforts by adding it to your favorite blends.

Application: Try cumin in culinary preparations or simply diffuse it as part of a blend.

7. Black Pepper Essential Oil

To really demonstrate thinking outside of the box for weight loss support, let’s turn to black pepper. In the 1990s, black pepper essential oil was used via inhalation to help reduce the symptoms of withdrawal for people as they quit smoking. (8) How might this benefit weight loss? The spiral of food addiction is often part of weight management problems, especially related to sugar cravings. Taking care of your body as you adopt a more balanced diet is important – going “cold turkey” on anything can create problems. Perhaps black pepper will help you take these steps for weight loss as it did for smokers. You never know until you try!

Application: Diffusion in an ultrasonic diffuser and personal inhalers.

Essential Oils for Weight Loss Diffusing Blends

Try this digestion-stimulating, appetite-curbing combination for use during physical activity, when food cravings hit, or during healthy mealtimes. Add 2 drops of the following oil blend in a gel cap for occasional support. Be sure to discontinue use immediately if acid reflux develops (this can sometimes happen with peppermint).

Essential Oils for Weight Loss Blend – equal parts of:

• Grapefruit
• Peppermint
• Lime
• Cinnamon

For instant hunger-curbing relief, add 5 drops of the Essential Oils for Weight Loss Blend into your favorite diffuser and take slow, deep breaths for 3-5 minutes. Keep the diffuser running as you go about your daily routine.

You can also use this blend to make a body oil or body wrap. I explain how to do all of this and more in my bestselling book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils.

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