Yoga and Your Health
Check out this terrific article by yogi Dr. Tim McCall!
5
Ways to Get Rid of Stubborn Belly Fat
Reduce Your Risk for
Heart Attack, Diabetes and Cancer
Don’t count on the
latest diet to shrink an expanding waistline. Belly fat is stubborn. Unlike fat
in the thighs, buttocks and hips, which visibly diminishes when you cut
calories, belly fat tends to stick around. Even strenuous exercise might not
make a dent.
The persistence of a
belly bulge isn’t merely cosmetic. Beneath the subcutaneous fat that you
can pinch with your fingers, fat deep in the abdomen is metabolically different
from “normal” fat. Known as visceral fat, it secretes inflammatory
substances that increase the risk for heart attack, type 2 diabetes and some
cancers. Even if you’re not overweight, a larger-than-average waistline
increases health risks.
Surprisingly, even
thin people can have a high percentage of visceral fat. It might not be
visible, but the risks are the same.
Weight-loss diets can
certainly help you drop pounds—and some of that weight will come from the deep
abdominal area. But unless you take a broader approach than the standard diet
and exercise advice, it’s very difficult to maintain visceral fat reductions
over the long haul. Here are better approaches to shrink your belly…
• Don’t stress over
losing weight. Everyone knows about
“stress eating.” After a fight with your spouse or a hard day at work, food can
be a welcome distraction. What people don’t realize is that the struggle to
lose weight may itself be highly stressful and that it can cause your belly fat
to stick around.
How this happens: Cortisol, one of the main stress-related
hormones, increases appetite and makes you less mindful of what you eat. It
causes the body to store more fat, particularly visceral fat. People who worry
a lot about their weight actually may find themselves eating more.
Take action to reduce
stress by practicing yoga, meditation or tai chi for even just a few minutes a
day. One study found that there was little or no obesity among more than 200
women over age 45 who had practiced yoga for many years. The key is regular
practice—it’s better to do 10 minutes of yoga a day than a 90-minute class once
a week.
Also helpful: Belly breathing. Sit up straight in a chair or
lie down on your back, close your eyes, and tune into your breathing. Breathe
in and out through your nose slowly and deeply but without straining. You’ll
feel your belly gently moving out as you inhale and then in as you exhale.
This type of breathing
is an effective form of stress control. Try it for one to five minutes once or
twice a day…or anytime you’re feeling stressed.
• Cultivate
mindfulness in your everyday life. According to yoga and Ayurvedic medicine (a system of healing
that originated in India), an overly busy mind can play as big a role in weight
gain as diet or exercise. We all need to step back from the chaos of life and
give our nervous system a chance to unwind. Take it one step at a time. Do less
multitasking. Try to move a little more slowly and deliberately. Spend less
time on the Internet and watching television—especially when you’re eating.
Although these activities may seem relaxing, they can stimulate the mind and
the nervous system and lead to overeating. Bonus: When you eat
mindfully, you’ll enjoy your food more and need less to feel satisfied.
• Exercise, but don’t
go crazy. Exercise, particularly
aerobic exercise, can obviously be good for weight loss. But for many people,
the intensity at which they exercise becomes yet another source of stress.
Example: One of my medical colleagues described a “Type
A” patient who was an exercise fanatic. Despite her strenuous fitness program,
she had a stubborn 10 pounds that she couldn’t get rid of. He suggested that
she might have more luck if she’d simply relax a bit. She ignored his
advice—until she broke a leg and had to take a break. The 10 pounds melted
away.
My advice: Get plenty of exercise, but enjoy it. Don’t
let it be stressful—make it a soothing part of your day. Go for a bike
ride…swim in a lake…take a hike in nature. Exercise that is relaxing may burn
just as many calories as a do-or-die gym workout but without the stress-related
rise in cortisol.
Tip: If you’ve practiced belly breathing, try to
bring that kind of breath focus to your exercise. It’s even possible to slowly
train yourself to breathe through your nose while you exercise, potentially
lowering cortisol levels and the rebound hunger that is so common after a
workout.
• Eat more fresh,
unprocessed food. What really matters
for health and healthy weight is the quality of your food. Many diets that have
been shown to be effective—such as the low-fat vegetarian Ornish program…the
Mediterranean diet…and some high-protein plans—disagree with one another, but
they all emphasize old-fashioned unprocessed food.
My advice: Worry less about micronutrients such as
specific vitamins, minerals and types of fat or your protein/carbohydrate
balance, and instead focus on eating more fresh vegetables, legumes, whole
grains, fruit, nuts and seeds. If you eat animal foods, choose free-range and
pasture-raised meat and dairy products, organic if possible.
• Cut back on refined
sugar. If you follow the
advice above and avoid processed foods, you’ll naturally consume less sugar,
refined grains (such as white bread) and other “simple” carbohydrates. This
will help prevent insulin surges that can lead to more visceral fat.
As always, balance is
important. I don’t advise anyone to give up all sources of sugar or all carbohydrates.
After all, a plum is loaded with the sugar fructose—and fruits are good for
you! It’s the added sugar in junk and fast food that’s the problem. Just be
aware that any processed food—including many snacks that are marketed as
healthier alternatives—will make it harder to control your weight.
Source: Timothy McCall, MD, an internist and medical
editor of Yoga Journal. He is author of Yoga As Medicine: The
Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, in which he reports on the connection between stress and
weight gain. Along with his wife, Eliana, he codirects The Simply Yoga
Institute in Summit, New Jersey, and teaches yoga-therapy seminars worldwide.
His articles have appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA.
DrMcCall.com
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