About Yoga and Weight

I don’t think anyone is going to argue with what I’m about to say: Americans are obsessed with transformation.

This may be rooted in the Protestant beginnings of the nation, or it may be deeper in the human psyche. But it seems that now, more than at any other point in time, we are culturally fascinated with media images of people who have undergone physical transformation, and the airwaves and print media abound with content focusing on weight loss, plastic surgery, miracle dentistry, and cosmetic overhauls.

Running parallel to that, of course, is the current fascination with yoga. It was only a matter of time before the video choices and yoga magazines became obsessed with the possibility of yoga as a weigh-loss tool. This premise is, of course, one of the primary pillars of the marketing program for Bikram, or “hot” yoga.

So is yoga an effective weight-loss tool? I’m not entirely sure how to answer this, but I’m going to do the best I can:

Practicing yoga is an effective lifestyle addition for people who want to be calmer and healthier.

That said, what we now know is that yoga has some significant physiological effects on the body, effects that are not easily replicated in other forms of exercise and activity. After all, yoga is a complex practice with a multi-thousand year history, and practitioners know from experience that yoga poses that can appear quite simple often have an impact deep within the body.

Researchers are now scrambling to quantify that experience.

Medical science is interested in weight loss because of the potential impact on health, but also because of the enormous potential of any weight-loss related discovery to attract funding for research and the development of enormously lucrative pharmaceuticals and related products. In short, pharmaceutical companies know that our cultural obsession with transformation can drive the marketplace to their benefit.

So many factors figure into our weight and where and how we maintain it: Metabolism, appetite, anxiety, mood, stress hormones, insulin levels, and a variety of other factors are all part of the mix… not to mention our intricate psychology.

Studies done in the past few years have shown that yoga can be helpful in reducing serum cortisol, an adrenal hormone sometimes called the “stress hormone.”

Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar (correspondingly raising insulin levels), and can have a negative effect on our immune system. Additionally it can keep us from regenerating bone lost to natural processes, and increase the effect of a class of circulating hormones called catecholamines, which include epinepherine (a big actor also known as adrenalin) and norepinepherine. Catecholamines are also adrenal hormones, instrumental in the “fight-or-flight” response of our body. They’re responsible for the “buzz” we get from caffeinated drinks, antihistamines, carnival rides, scary movies, and the ever-increasing pace of life.

We produce catecholamines when we’re under psychological stress, and when we have low blood sugar (hence the “jittery” feeling that accompanies skipping meals and living on lattes). When our blood sugar is low, our body releases these hormones to try and raise it back up. In a true fight-or-fight response, this rise in our blood sugar would help fuel self-protective functions like “Run!” or “Fight!” but in daily life, where we have accepted a constant dull thrum of stress from traffic, appointments, commitments, media bombardment, and other stressors, we simply alter our fuel storage accordingly (through the functions of insulin) and may store that extra sugar away in our fat cells more easily than if we we were’t under stress. In other words, our body weight adjusts to perceived threat.

Yoga can be instrumental in relieving our perceived stress. Not only does it give us a way to create space in our lives away from the chaos of regular activity, it also gives our bodies authentic opportunity to feel safe and to relax.

I believe that some of the practices of yoga, including backbends, may stimulate the adrenal glands in a normalizing, or balancing, way and therefore contribute to a healthy weight. Some types of yoga may be strongest in promoting relaxation, other styles may change metabolism through aerobic activity or by building muscle. Many practices include all of the above.

A recent study also showed that an hour practice of yoga, as opposed to an hour spent reading, helped to increase the levels of GABA or gamma amino-butyric acid in individuals who took part in a study. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, a substance in the body that helps keep our nerves from being overexcited. Low levels of GABA are linked to depression and anxiety, two conditions that can be linked to increased body weight due to inactivity, a potentially increased fight-or-flight response (and the corresponding rise in stress hormones), and behavioral overeating.

Another hormone, leptin, a protein hormone sometimes called the “obesity hormone,” is thought to have a profound effect on our appetite and metabolism. Leptin has been in the scientific news quite a bit in the last few years because of the pharmaceutical interest in it as a potential key in the treatment of obesity, diabetes, inflammation, and certain types of cancer. Leptin circulates in our blood, giving our body a “readout” of our energy supplies and essentially telling us when we need to eat more. Usually it is in our blood at levels proportionate to our body fat, and is most likely part of the phenomenon known as a weight “set point”. One study, in the Harvard School of Public Health found that leptin levels were the lowest in men who exercised, regardless of their relative body weight.

A study done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle concluded that a regular yoga practice may promote weight loss in middle-aged individuals and support the maintenance of a healthy weight in non-overweight individuals. Over a 10-year period, the yoga practitioners lost weight or maintained a healthy weight, and the non-practitioners gained an average of a pound a year (10 pounds over the life of the study).

The study didn’t focus soley on the most vigorous styles of yoga, but rather included practitioners of all types of yoga and found the results to be consistent across various kinds of practice.

The study’s primary author, Alan R. Kristal, Dr.P.H., said, in response to his findings:

During a very vigorous yoga practice you can burn enough calories to lose weight, but most people don’t practice that kind of yoga,” he said. “From my experience, I think it has to do with the way that yoga makes you more aware of your body. So when you’ve eaten enough food, you’re sensitive to the feeling of being full, and this makes it much easier to stop eating before you’ve eaten too much.

Study co-author Denise Benitez, owner of Seattle Yoga Arts, agrees.

“Most people practice yoga in a way that’s not aerobic enough to burn a lot of calories, so it has to be some other reason.”

I hope that in this post I’ve been able to suggest some of the other reasons, among what is surely a multitude.

Somehow, I don’t feel like this post would be complete unless I gave you my personal thoughts on this topic:

I’m always a little reticent to share some of these details because it’s so easy to make them ring with the self-righteousness that reflects that cultural obsession with transformation, and since that’s exactly the opposite of my purpose, please keep this in mind.

I struggled with weight and body-image issues through much of my life.

I matured early and developed a very adult-appearing body in early adolescence, and began putting on weight. While not obese as a kid, I was definitely curvy. My response to this, and the unwanted attention that it brought me from peers and family, led me to a path of yo-yo dieting, overeating, and eventually an eating disorder. From age 17 until pregnancy in my mid-thirties, I was in a variety of places on the weight spectrum, literally spanning a 100-lb. range.

So what changed for me? In the year after my son (now 11) was born, I started practicing yoga. Almost immediately my weight stabilized, and slowly, slowly began to creep down. I kept going to classes, although I didn’t set out to make any other substantial lifestyle changes. Eventually I was certified to teach and made teaching yoga part of my career path. I suppose that some lifestyle changes eventually followed my yoga, affecting what, when, and how I eat, in a way that benefits my practice.

Recently, I realized that I weigh about 40 pounds less than I did when I was in my teaching program, and maybe even as much as 60 pounds less than when I began a yoga practice of my own.

This didn’t happen fast. In fact it’s happened so slowly that many of my friends, family members, and students have barely noticed, which is fine with me. I feel far more comfortable with my body than I have at any time in my life, and the changes have happed so naturally and slowly that I haven’t needed time to adjust to a “new” or “different” body. I think of it as my personal “anti-transformation”.

After decades of struggle, these changes have been truly drama-free for me. So, am I model-thin? Do I look like I should be in the Yoga Journal calendar?

Not hardly.

There will always be someone on the mat next to me who is thinner, stronger, or younger. That’s part of the practice of yoga. But I’m doing great for who and where I am. And, knowing that may be the biggest benefit of all.

Namasté.

p.s. YogaMum, another yoga blogger, shares her thoughts about yoga and weight here.