Oprah Winfrey Joins Deepak Chopra on Meditation Challenge to Help With Weight Loss

— -- Oprah Winfrey wowed social media in a stunning red dress on Valentine’s Day, posting this photo to Instagram and proving her weight-loss efforts are showing big results.

“I’ve lost 26 pounds and I have eaten bread every single day,” she recently said in a Weight Watchers commercial.

Winfrey now looks like she may have lost even more weight than her announcement more than two weeks ago, but she’s revealing Weight Watchers might not be the only thing helping her shed the pounds.

She joined Deepak Chopra, spiritual guru and author of “Super Genes,” on a 21-day meditation challenge called “Shedding the Weight: Mind, Body and Spirit,” a method that some claim can help with weight loss.

“Meditation is a way of progressively quieting the mind,” Chopra told ABC News. “We are also introducing the idea of shedding emotional baggage, which frequently is the cause of weight gain.”

Winfrey, 62, says this discovery program has helped her gain insight into her struggle with weight loss, adding in a press release, “I have learned that weight can affect more than just our physical being, it takes on all kinds of different meaning in our lives.”

Researchers continue to study the link between meditation and weight loss, and while there is some evidence that meditation can help people lose weight, it’s still too early to make solid conclusions.

Yet Chopra claims there is a connection, and that it works.

“Meditation decreases the levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone,” he explained. “When you have stress, then you accumulate belly fat.”

Many nutritionists also say losing weigh must include serious changes in diet.

“Meditation alone will not take off the weight,” said Maya Feller, a New York-based registered dietitian nutritionist. “It’s really important to pay attention to the types of food that one is eating, the portion and then you can really, really focus on weight loss.”