The attitude to food has changed over the past hundred years. In Europe, people no longer go hungry, on the contrary, constant overeating has become a problem. This is understandable, because the products are available, and the culture of entertainment is at a very low level for many. The nutritional traditions that existed among the religious Russian people are now completely destroyed and replaced by the cult of food. Everyone knows that food should be balanced, proper and environmentally friendly. And many don’t even suspect that they don’t always have to eat until they are completely saturated.
That is why overweight is the scourge of many Russians and Europeans. Fighting him is not just working for a good figure. Obesity makes diseases such as diabetes, arthrosis, and cholecystitis more likely.
It is difficult for a person to walk a lot and actively move. For the fight, diets and special nutritional schemes are used. But for many, this is labor and deprivation of pleasures, and they turn to the church for help to learn prayers for weight loss. Of course, it’s good when a person resorts to God with any of his problems, but in this case the church cannot help. There are no such prayers. But Orthodoxy can help look at the problem much more broadly. After all, obesity often overtakes those who are wrong with food, exhibit gluttony. That is, prayers for weight loss are prayers against this sin.
If a person comes to the temple with a desire to get rid of gluttony, the Orthodox Church can offer him help. This is one of the deadly sins, so prayers for weight loss in the form of prayers against gluttony are very common.
In the Orthodox tradition there are four posts: Great, Rozhdestvensky, Petrov and Uspensky. Nutritional restrictions during these periods are very significant. Believers ask God to help them overcome their harmful tendencies and desires, their passions. For example, the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian is practically an Orthodox prayer for weight loss, and it is said many times every day of fasting. According to the charter, during a short prayer 4 earthly bows are made (kneel, bow to the floor) and 12 waist, in which it is necessary to touch the floor only with outstretched hands.
Of course, believers do not perceive the prayer work of Lent as prayers for weight loss. But, if you approach them from a physiological and psychological point of view, they are just that.
Many psychologists have studied the problem of overweight, the increased importance of food in the value system of modern Europeans. And the desire to lose weight in itself occupies a special place. We must completely stop thinking about nutrition: calories, taste, advantages and disadvantages of dishes. If interest in food is supplanted by some more significant interest, for example, spiritual values, religious life, then a person himself will not notice how he will lose weight.
Many people use what they call themselves "prayer for weight loss." Reviews of the results depend on the general mood of the person. If he is ready to radically revise his system of values, usually the weight gradually leaves and no longer returns. And if food and personal pleasures are still in the first place, the struggle for harmony can last a lifetime, but it won’t be won.