Weight Loss and Yoga.

People wonder if yoga can cause weight loss. In my experience and in the experiences of others, yoga increases mindfulness and body awareness. A yoga practice may lead to you looking at your food before you eat it. It may lead to you actually tasting what you eat.

When practicing Yoga you are well aware of your body. You are aware of where it is tight and needs some flexibility. You are aware of areas of fat with which you are not comfortable. These experiences can promote weight loss in people who are overweight and prevent weight gain in people of normal weight. These findings were reported in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

According to the Center for Mindful Eating, a nonprofit organization, "mindful eating has the powerful potential to transform people's relationship to food and eating, to improve overall health, body image, relationships and self-esteem." People who engage in mindful eating can better achieve weight loss because they can identify mindless eating habits; learn to make choices about their eating based on awareness of hunger and satiety cues, and value quality rather than quantity of food. Source

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was the venue for the most recent study on yoga and weight loss. Past studies showed that people in a healthy weight range who practiced yoga could hold off on the middle age spread. Those who were overweight lost some weight. The important findings and what led to this most recent research was that middle-age participants in the earlier study gained less weight over a period of 10 years than those who did not practice yoga.

The researchers developed a Mindful Eating Questionnaire that addressed eating when full, emotions, distractions, and awareness to name a few of the 28 questions asked.

More than 300 people were given the questionnaire. More than 40% practiced yoga more than one hour per week; 46% walked for at least 90 minutes per week; and more than 50% exercised more than 90 minutes moderately or strenuously each week.

The researchers found a significant correlation between practicing yoga and mindful eating, but this relationship didn't exist between other types of activities, such as running or walking, and mindful eating. This is very interesting because it really solidifies the notion that those who practice yoga are more in the moment than others and are more mindful - perhaps about everything they do in life.

SOURCES

Science Daily

Journal of the American Dietetic Association

Emax