yoga helps weight maintenance

[Guest guest]

Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating

Study suggests that mindful eating can play a key role

in long-term weight maintenance

http://www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/news/2009/08/03/yoga.html

SEATTLE — Aug. 3, 2009 — Regular yoga practice is associated

with mindful eating, and people who eat mindfully are less

likely to be obese, according to a study led by researchers

at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The study was prompted by initial findings reported four

years ago by Alan Kristal, Dr.P.H., and colleagues, who

found that regular yoga practice may help prevent

middle-age spread in normal-weight people and may

promote weight loss in those who are overweight. At

the time, the researchers suspected that the weight-loss

effect had more to do with increased body awareness,

specifically a sensitivity to hunger and satiety than

the physical activity of yoga practice itself.

The follow-up study, published in the August issue of

the Journal of the American Dietetic Association,

confirms their initial hunch. " In our earlier study,

we found that middle-age people who practice yoga

gained less weight over a 10-year period than those

who did not. This was independent of physical activity

and dietary patterns. We hypothesized that mindfulness –

a skill learned either directly or indirectly through

yoga – could affect eating behavior, " said Kristal,

associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program in

the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson

Center.

The researchers found that people who ate mindfully –

those were aware of why they ate and stopped eating

when full – weighed less than those who ate mindlessly,

who ate when not hungry or in response to anxiety or

depression. The researchers also found a strong

association between yoga practice and mindful eating

but found no association between other types of physical

activity, such as walking or running, and mindful eating.

" These findings fit with our hypothesis that yoga increases

mindfulness in eating and leads to less weight gain over

time, independent of the physical activity aspect of yoga

practice, " said Kristal, who is also a professor of

epidemiology at the University of Washington School of

Public Health.

Kristal, a yoga enthusiast for the past 15 years, said

that yoga cultivates mindfulness in a number of ways,

such as being able to hold a challenging physical pose

by observing the discomfort in a non-judgmental way,

with an accepting, calm mind and focus on the breath.

" This ability to be calm and observant during physical

discomfort teaches how to maintain calm in other

hallenging situations, such as not eating more even

when the food tastes good and not eating when you’re

not hungry, " he said.

To test whether yoga in fact increases mindfulness and

mindful eating, Kristal and colleagues developed a

Mindful Eating Questionnaire, a 28-item survey that

measured a variety of factors:

• disinhibition – eating even when full;

• awareness – being aware of how food looks, tastes and smells;

• external cues – eating in response to environmental cues,

such as advertising;

• emotional response – eating in response to sadness or stress; and

• distraction – focusing on other things while eating.

Each question was graded on a scale of 1 to 4, in which

higher scores signified more mindful eating. The

questionnaire was administered to more than 300 people

at Seattle-area yoga studios, fitness facilities and

weight-loss programs, among other venues. More than

80 percent of the study participants were women,

well-educated and Caucasian, with an average age of 42.

Participants provided self-reported information on a

number of factors, including weight, height, yoga

practice, walking for exercise or transportation

and other forms of moderate and strenuous exercise.

More than 40 percent of the participants practiced

yoga more than an hour per week, 46 percent walked

for exercise or transportation for at least 90

minutes per week and more than 50 percent engaged

in more than 90 minutes of moderate and/or strenuous

physical activity per week.

The average weight of the study participants was

within the normal range – not surprising considering

that the study sample intentionally consisted of people

more physically active than the U.S. population in

general. Body-mass index was lower among participants

who practiced yoga as compared to those who did not

(an average of 23.1 vs. 25.8, respectively).

Higher scores on the mindfulness questionnaire overall

(and on each of the categories within the questionnaire)

was associated with a lower BMI, which suggests that

mindful eating may play an important role in long-term

weight maintenance, Kristal said.

" Mindful eating is a skill that augments the usual

approaches to weight loss, such as dieting, counting

calories and limiting portion sizes. Adding yoga

practice to a standard weight-loss program may make

it more effective, " said Kristal, who himself scored

high on the mindful-eating survey and has a BMI

within the normal range.

Moving forward, Kristal and colleagues suggest that

their Mindful Eating Questionnaire, the first tool

of its kind to characterize and measure mindful

eating, may be useful both in clinical practice

and research to understand and promote healthy

dietary behavior.

" Beyond calories and diets, mindful eating takes a

more holistic approach that can empower individuals

to build positive relationships with food and eating,

said first author Celia Framson, M.P.H., R.D., C.D.,

a former graduate student of Kristal's – and former

yoga teacher – who now works with adolescents with

eating disorders at Seattle Children's Hospital.

" The Mindful Eating Questionnaire offers a new and

relevant dimension for measuring the effectiveness

of dietary behavior interventions. It also encourages

nutrition and medical practitioners to consider the

broad scope of behavior involved in healthy eating, "

she said.

Other authors on the paper included Benitez,

owner of Seattle Yoga Arts; Alyson Littman, Ph.D.,

an epidemiologist at the UW School of Public Health

and Department of Veterans Affairs; Steve Zeliadt,

Ph.D., of VA Puget Sound Healthcare; and Jeanette

Schenk, R.D., a research dietitian in the Hutchinson

Center's Cancer Prevention Program.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center funded the study.

[Guest guest]

Since finally taking up yoga practice almost 1 year ago, I have nothing

but good to say about it.

I do not practice at home, which would be cheaper but far less effective

- the class and energy is a big component. I also was already a very

mindful eater, so that's not really a good tie in to this story, but

without changing anything else I was doing/eating, yoga did cause me to

drop 10 lbs in several months and it has stayed off thus far.

I practice 6-8 hours weekly, FYI.

>

> Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating

> Study suggests that mindful eating can play a key role

> in long-term weight maintenance

>

> http://www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/news/2009/08/03/yoga.html

[snip]

> More than 40 percent of the participants practiced

> yoga more than an hour per week, 46 percent walked

> for exercise or transportation for at least 90

> minutes per week and more than 50 percent engaged

> in more than 90 minutes of moderate and/or strenuous

> physical activity per week.

[Guest guest]

For those who want to practise at home (not only cheaper but more convenient, and a timesave) I have been using a tape for years called: “Yoga, Mind and Body” led by master teacher h Shiffmann. Can be purchased very inexpensively on ebay or elsewhere on the web.

On 9/11/09 11:19 AM, " kaitainen " <andrea@...> wrote:

Since finally taking up yoga practice almost 1 year ago, I have nothing

but good to say about it.

I do not practice at home, which would be cheaper but far less effective

- the class and energy is a big component. I also was already a very

mindful eater, so that's not really a good tie in to this story, but

without changing anything else I was doing/eating, yoga did cause me to

drop 10 lbs in several months and it has stayed off thus far.

I practice 6-8 hours weekly, FYI.

>

> Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating

> Study suggests that mindful eating can play a key role

> in long-term weight maintenance

>

> http://www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/news/2009/08/03/yoga.html

[snip]

> More than 40 percent of the participants practiced

> yoga more than an hour per week, 46 percent walked

> for exercise or transportation for at least 90

> minutes per week and more than 50 percent engaged

> in more than 90 minutes of moderate and/or strenuous

> physical activity per week.