Overweight or Obese
What is (Being) Overweight or Obese?
According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, more than 63-percent of Americans are overweight or obese. The Western definition of being overweight or obese is defined by what is known as a body mass index (BMI), which is a calculation of one’s height in relation to their weight. Being classified as overweight is to have a slightly higher BMI than those of normal weight, and being diagnosed as obese is to have an even higher BMI than those who are overweight.
The above statistic is based on this way of categorizing people, and suggests a rather unhealthy landscape of America. Those who are overweight or obese are thought to consume more calories than they use through excessive amounts of food and drink, to live too sedentary a lifestyle, and may suffer from other conditions (like poor thyroid function).
They are also at risk of developing significant health problems including heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, diabetes, stroke, and other conditions.
Given how being overweight or obese is such an epidemic in America, a huge market has emerged finding new and different ways to guarantee weight loss to afflicted consumers. This includes taking prescription medication (such as Meridia) having procedures done on the gastrointestinal tract (such as gastric bypass surgery), following specific weight loss programs (like Weight Watchers), and more generally encouraging dieting and exercise as ways to balance out the number of calories consumed in relation to the number of calories used.
How Does Ayurveda View (Being) Overweight or Obese?
Ayurveda’s consideration of being overweight has nothing to do with counting calories or calculating a number that fits all people. Rather than assessing a person’s extra weight through numbers, Ayurveda considers a person who is overweight to have an excessive buildup of Kapha energy.
Kapha energy is responsible for rooting the body and giving it its structure and stability, as it is the heaviest of all elements. This means that people with a lot of Kapha energy will have thicker, more developed bodies. It also means, however, that they will have a greater chance of putting on extra weight if the this element becomes excessive on the individual’s body frame. This propensity for weight gain relates back to tending to have much weaker digestion than their Pitta-dominant friends.
Those who don’t pursue balancing their Kapha energy will not only tend to have a heavy body, but they will have heavier energy as well. Those with excessive Kapha energy are likely to experience lethargy, laziness, and indulge in a predominantly sedentary lifestyle. This imbalance of the heavier Kapha element can arise due to an addiction to certain foods from childhood or from heavy thoughts that cause a person to feed his or her emotions. To heal the root cause of this issue, a person needs to first identify the reason for their excessive eating and treat this cause as well as the effect. As is the case when viewed through a Western model, having excessive Kapha energy may also lead to diseases like diabetes.
How Does Ayurveda Treat (Being) Overweight or Obese?
Instead of dictating a person to have a specific body mass index, Ayurveda encourages those who have more Kapha energy to simply live in a healthy state of their generally thicker body without indulging in excessive food and drink intake to the point of morphing from thick to fat.
People who are overweight or obese may be encouraged by their Ayurvedic practitioner to build more motion in relation to Vata energy and more heat or digestive power in relation to Pitta energy. This can happen when they favor foods that help to balance their Kapha energy without increasing it, engage in yoga postures that will stimulate digestion and exercise the body, and partake in other therapies that help the body to rid itself of the heaviness and density associated with being overweight.
If Kapha energy is in excess due to emotions and the mind holding on to old, unhealthy thoughts, more breathing practices, meditation or simple sitting practices, and reading of spiritual literature are needed. These practices help people to start learning more about themselves and their history, and how their past has led them to become the person they are today. As overeating is usually emotional, other measures are also needed for people to become rooted in a healthy lifestyle that fosters the connection between mind, body and spirit.
Lifestyle Changes for (Being) Overweight or Obese
When we neglect to establish the root cause of one illness, it can turn into another, stronger illness in the future. The first step in resolving a specific ailment or disease in the body is to assess the nature of our lifestyle and make general modifications. Living our day-to-day life with a deliberate intention to improve our health will help us to both resolve the disease we are suffering from and prevent further incidence of it and other diseases in the future. The following changes provide general guidelines to be followed when balancing aggravated Kapha energy and ridding the body of excess weight:
- Wake at the time of Vata, which is before 6am. This early activity will help burn off the density of Kapha energy.
- Start the day off with a cup of hot water.
- Follow eating with a half cup of hot water or warm ginger water.
- Keep meals to once or twice a day, without snacking. This will quickly relieve the body of excess food to digest and bring it back into balance.
- Take light walks and stretch the body so that it can release the excess, stagnant Kapha.
- Practice yoga postures on a daily basis to help create more heat in the body.
- Favor pungent, bitter, and spicy foods, as this will help stimulate digestion and create more heat in the body.
- Avoid sweet foods as well as junk food, packaged food, leftovers, and alcohol.
- Avoid eating dinner, as the food that remains undigested until the early morning will create more mucus in the system. This will inhibit the burning of toxins and excess fat.
- Avoid eating in front of the TV or during other activities that distract from the act of eating.
- Instead, sit in silence and eat food slowly and mindfully.
- Avoid heavy foods and drinks at night, which will create more stress on the digestive fire.
- Avoid food until later in the morning, after 10am. This will help digestion become stronger.
- Avoid sitting around too much, which will make the body stiff.
- Avoid being out in heavy, rainy weather.
- Avoid sleeping in excess.
- Eat until the stomach is half full.
- Become engaged in energetic, creative thoughts that will stimulate the mind to think of other activities instead of food.
Better Foods For (Being) Overweight or Obese
Ayurveda teaches us that disease and sickness are derived from poor digestion and inappropriate food choices. We then have the opportunity tomake deliberate and more conscious decisions as to what foods we do and do not put in our body which increases the chance of resolving the body’s imbalance.
Food needs to be in season, in moderate combinations of one or two food groups, not too hot or cold, in a modest enough quantity to allow for room in the stomach later, consumed without too much liquid which hinders digestive power, and should be fresh and not left over for more than a few hours. Below are foods that will help stimulate digestion and therefore burn off more excess weight than other diets will:
Prunes
Raisins
Cherries
Apples
Pomegranates
Figs (dry)
Peaches
Apricots
Radishes
Onions
Pears
Asparagus
Carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Sprouts
Brussels Sprouts
Vegetable soup
Barley
Millet
Mustard oil
Ghee (in limited amounts)
Goat milk (in limited amounts)
Raw honey (in limited amounts)
Foods To AVOID In Response To (Being) Overweight or Obese
While some foods can help to balance an aggravated dosha, other foods can cause further imbalance. Dry and cold foods as well as pungent, bitter and astringent tastes will dry out the body and aggravate the Vata dosha.Sour, salty and pungent tastes as well as spicy foods will add more heat to the body and aggravate the Pitta dosha.Sweet, sour and salty tasting foods will add heaviness to the body and aggravate the Kapha dosha. The following foods can aggravate Kapha energy even further, and should be avoided as much as possible:
Bananas
Melons
Grapes
Pineapples
Papayas
Avocado
Plums
Tomatoes
Sweet potatoes
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Wheat
Oats (cooked)
Rice
Nuts
Seeds
Sweets and candy
Fruit juices
Meat
Fish
Salt
Unnatural sugar
Cold foods
Sweeteners (except for raw honey)
Dairy products (except goat milk, in moderation)
Most oils (except for almond, sunflower, or corn oil in moderation)
Beverages For (Being) Overweight or Obese
Generally, Ayurveda discourages the consumption of too many cold beverages, as doing so hinders the strength of the body’s digestive fire. Instead, favors room temperature or hot beverages to encourage the strength of the digestive fire.
- Hot water, especially during meals and first thing in the morning
- Sour drinks after meals, including lassi (it should be very light and diluted well).
- Herbal tea of turmeric, black pepper, ginger, and trikatu
- Avoid cold and frozen drinks
- Avoid sugary or fizzy drinks that blend with the digestive juice and make it weak.
- Avoid alcohol, coffee, and black tea.
- Avoid fruit juice from concentrate.
Herbs For (Being) Overweight or Obese
Herbs are used in the Ayurvedic system much like Western medicine utilizes drugs and vitamins and can be taken like tea 2 to 3 times a day. Herbs aid in the digestion of food, the breakdown and elimination of toxins, and help to strengthen the cellular structure of our system for greater vitality. Herbs become more potent once mixed with other herbs of similar properties. Mix together 2 to 4 different herbs from the below list by adding a quarter to a half teaspoon full of each, for a total of 1 teaspoon. Drink these in half cup of hot water.
Turmeric
Cinnamon
Licorice
Nutmeg
Cloves
Ginger
Sandalwood (white)
Calamus
Black pepper
Castor oil
Tulsi
Trikatu
Cloves
Ginger
Sandalwood (white)
Calamus
Black pepper
Castor oil
Tulsi
Trikatu
Yoga Postures For (Being) Overweight or Obese
When applied therapeutically to specific ailments, yoga postures provide an opportunity to strengthen the body, rid it of toxic matter, and restore balance. The postures included in this section can be practiced as part of a more general sequence or can be focused on in short sessions. When first exploring yoga postures, it is best to only practice them for twenty minutes or so per day and buildup from there once the body becomes more flexible.
Sun salutation
Cobra
Shoulder Stand
Boat
Forward bend
Bridge
Plough
Fish
Easy seat
Aromatherapy For (Being) Overweight or Obese
Aromatherapy utilizes the fragrances of essential oils when applied to the skin. Essential oils can burn the skin and therefore must be diluted with a base oil such as sesame, coconut, sunflower, canola, or mustard oil. Mix 1 fluid ounce of base oil with about 12 drops of essential oil before applying to skin. You can also just mix 5 drops of base oil to one drop of essential oil if using on one spot.
- Obesity can be treated with cinnamon, eucalyptus, sage, basil, musk, cedar, frankincense, or myrrh oil.
- Use a canola or mustard oil base.
- Apply oil on the skin between the navel and pubic bone.
Mantra Therapy For (Being) Overweight or Obese
Ayurvedic tradition suggests that repeating certain words or sounds can help a person suffering from an ailment to restore subtle balance to nerve tissue and enhance one’s mental clarity. Different sounds are prescribed to either repeat mentally or chant outwardly. These sounds are also used and repeated in the mind for the purpose of spiritual growth.
For being overweight and obese, repeat the syllable “Ham” (pronounced hahm) for several minutes a few times a day and build more practice over time.
As a Kapha-related disorder, it is helpful to outwardly chant this syllable for the duration of time it is practiced.
Breathing Practices For (Being) Overweight or Obese
Controlling the breath is a central practice toward developing peace and stillness in the mind and body. When the breath is under our control, we are no longer at the mercy of the senses that are stimulated by everything and lead to greater fluctuations of the mind. When applied to the context of resolving specific ailments, the breath is used as a tool for developing lung capacity, heating and cooling the body and resolving mental afflictions like anxiety and stress.