To begin, one of the easiest human pitfalls is to assume that one’s own experience is reflective of everyone else’s. It’s therefore tempting to assume that because you lost 10 or 100 pounds practicing yoga, this extrapolates to everyone’s experience. When this occurs and a person fails to behave in a way that doesn’t align with your self-concept, judgment arises. This is a slippery slope that can lack a fundamental tenet of contemplative traditions: compassion.

Thus, a yogini that loses 60 pounds blogs about how being overweight must indicate that 1) something is out of balance in your life, 2) your body is high in toxicity, or 3) you most likely have an issue with emotional eating. Lost in this well-intentioned manifesto is the reality that while many who experience overweight do emotionally eat and struggle to find balance, others are metabolically balanced and healthy, or suffer from medical conditions, such as underactive thyroid. In Ayurveda, many kapha (earth-water) body types would be considered to have overweight body mass index (BMI), despite being naturally larger-boned and framed.

Furthermore, repeated research has failed to find consistent linkages between psychological factors and overweight, although popular misconception conflates being overweight with mental or emotional deficits. Also, the claim that excess body weight is inherently related to toxicity is not supported by current evidence. While obesity has been linked to inflammatory biomarkers at the population level, this is not true for all individuals (for example, a larger-boned kapha body type who may be technically classed as overweight/obese but in perfect health).

After decades of failed treatments, for healthy overweight patients some experts now recommend eating a healthy diet and engaging in enjoyed physical activities rather than losing weight, given the characteristic cycle of regain following reductions in body weight. Nonetheless, a minority does manage to lose weight and keep it off. But for every highly-publicized yoga weight loss success story, there are more overweight yoga practitioners who experience significant improvements in health and well-being, yet don’t wish to lose weight and/or experience minimal weight loss following long-term practice.

This may be why blogs on yoga for weight loss are a trigger point for many. Such pieces reflect a tendency in the broader US culture to whitewash the multi-factorial origins of overweight/obesity, over-simplistically attributing body weight to factors within the individual’s control when scientific research has clearly established that more frequently, origins are far more complex and treatment requires greater nuance.

What are your thoughts on weight loss among yoga practitioners?

mbcyoga: ...

I imagine that finding a way to connect your mind body and spirit in a positive way does result in healthier habits and a better overall sense of well-being. For some this could include weight loss, but I think that is a side bar issue to the real benefits of a consistent yoga practice.....

1

August 08, 2012