Healthy Weight with Yoga

​We’re continuing our series “This is Your Body on Yoga.” We’ve already looked at three systems: nervous, skeletal and muscular. Please scroll back through the blog to read the earlier entries. Now we move on to the surprising system made up of FAT! Well, we think of it as fat, but the yogic tradition describes it as the unctuous, oily, lubricating aspect of the body. And while we modern folks often have a negative view of fat, the medical side of Yoga (known as Ayurveda) teaches that fat tissues have these functions:

• To lubricate the eyes, skin, hair, nails, lips, as well as the waste materials of urine and feces. 

• To form adequate amounts of sweat.

• To make the body firm and stable and make one impervious to exhaustion.

• To increase happiness and satisfaction with life. 

Here are three ways Yoga helps us take better care of our fat tissue:

First, it’s important to know how much fat is healthy for us according to our Ayurvedic constitution rather than try to meet some unreasonable expectation for weight and body type. Ayurveda teaches there are generally three body types: Vata types tend to be perpetually skinny and have difficulty putting on weight; Kapha types tend to be larger around the middle and have difficulty taking off weight; Pitta types tend to have more muscle tone and usually stay at a fairly consistent weight, not too much and not too little. Sadly, many Kapha types feel the pressure to create a Vata body, a task that ultimately brings disappointment because they are naturally meant to have a little more fat around the middle.

Second, Sun Salutations are an excellent way to sweat and build strength. I know a young man who started doing 45 minutes of Sun Salutations every day. He sweated profusely and dropped 20 pounds in a couple of months. This flowing set of poses is designed to warm up the body for other standing postures, but it also recruits big muscles to increase heart rate and sweating to melt away adipose tissue.

Third, Yoga integrates body, mind and spirit to tackle the bigger issues contributing to weight gain and weight loss. In the past weight gain and loss were treated like a simple math exercise—calories in and calories out. Many disappointed people have discovered that this simplistic explanation does not work. Now we know there are other factors to consider, including hormones and additives in food, as well as poor sleep, trauma and stress that play havoc with our internal hormones. Yoga uses a variety of practices to mitigate these factors: postures, meditations, breath exercises, relaxation poses, living according to our constitution and eating with the seasons. 

If you’re trying to develop a better relationship with your fat tissue, head on over to a yoga class and consider making an appointment with an Ayurveda consultant. You too can get on the fast track to happiness and satisfaction.