Health Day

For some frequent dieters, weight loss is a vicious cycle. They’re gung-ho in the beginning, and the pounds melt away, but not for long. Once they stray from their diet, all the weight that was lost makes a comeback.

This weight cycling, also known as “yo-yo” dieting, has been vilified over the years. Studies have linked it to everything from high blood pressure and high cholesterol to diabetes and depression.

In fact, a 2006 review in the International Journal of Obesity by Swiss researchers of the scientific evidence noted an association between weight fluctuations and cardiovascular disease and death.

“I agree that data on weight cycling are mixed, particularly on weight regain, decreased energy expenditure, etcetera,” said lead author Dr. Jean-Pierre Montani, professor and chair of physiology at the University of Fribourg.

“However, there is increasing evidence that weight cycling may lead to cardiovascular and metabolic disorders,” such as hypertension and diabetes, he added. “And the risk of complications of weight cycling seems greater in people with normal weight or slightly overweight than in obese people.”

But other experts say the news on weight cycling may not be as bad as it seems, and it shouldn’t discourage people from trying to lose weight.

“From my perspective, it’s so worth it to try (losing weight), even if it’s the sixth time,” said Dr. Michael L. Dansinger, an assistant professor of medicine and obesity researcher at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. “It’s the people who never give up trying who are eventually going to succeed.”

Weight cycling can refer to a small weight loss and regain of 5 to 10 pounds, or a large cycle of 50 pounds or more, according to the Weight-control Information Network, a service of the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

And at least some of the studies suggesting that repeatedly losing and gaining weight poses health risks fail to separate intentional weight loss from unintentional weight loss, one expert maintained.

“People who lose weight unintentionally may be losing weight due to a disease, such as cancer, or depression,” explained Alison E. Field, associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston. “Those weight losses one would expect to look bad for your health, because they are the result, not the cause, of disease.”

Field, who studies intentional weight loss, added, “In our ongoing work, weight cyclers do not appear to be more likely to die.”

The U.S. National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity found that, while conclusive data regarding the long-term health effects of weight cycling are lacking, the potential risks do not outweigh the potential benefits of weight loss in significantly obese patients.

Dansinger’s own research on dieting suggests that overweight people should never give up trying to lose weight.

He and colleagues examined the effect of dieting advice on people’s weight loss over time. The team performed a “meta-analysis” — a study of studies — comparing people who were counseled to change their dietary patterns, with members of a control group who received little more than general verbal or written advice on dieting.

Their study, published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that people who got dietary counseling lost an average of 6 percent of their body weight within a year, compared with the control group.

What Dansinger didn’t fully appreciate at the time were the implications for weight cycling. While both groups regained virtually all of the weight they had lost after five years, the active weight-loss group, on average, did as well as, or better than, the control group.

“And so, this study actually helps provide strong evidence to address that question about whether someone’s worse off due to trying (to lose weight), and the answer is no. There’s no sign that losing the weight results in a worse final weight than in the control group,” Dansinger explained.

“I agree that it never hurts to try,” said Field, adding that people should move away from diets and strive for lifestyle changes.

“A lifestyle change would be to make smaller changes to diet that someone could stick with, such as decreasing the number of cans or bottles of soda, sports drinks and other sweetened beverages and watching one hour per day less of television,” she said. “Additional changes could be done gradually, but the goal would be long-term weight control rather than large rapid weight losses.”

Kundalini Yoga is a physical and meditative discipline that seeks to awaken us as humans to our full physical, mental and spiritual potential. Kundalini energy, often depicted as the serpent coiled at the base of the spine, can be accessed and activated by this very effective science called Kundalini Yoga. Yoga sets, called Kriyas, open the Chakras (the body energy centers) bringing about many wonderful benefits such as greater health and vitality, improved circulation and memory, mood stabilization, spinal flexibility, regulation of digestion and elimination, creating a sense of well being and spiritual connectedness. Kundalini Yoga blends physical postures called Asanas, rhythmic breathing, the chanting of Mantras, Relaxation, and Meditation.

Through the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, we support the Yoga for Youth program with a mission to serve our youths longing to live joyous and fulfilling lives by providing them a solid physical, mental, and emotional base through the practice of yoga.

To introduce them to the elevating experience of their own personal greatness by sharing age old techniques, to foster compassion, forgiveness, courage and respect for themselves and others. The YOGA program provides fun and challenging exercises for the participants. They learn practical applications of Yogic technology in an energizing and enjoyable way. If you would like Yoga for Youth to come to you, please contact us.

Kundalini Yoga is an active style of yoga that has many movements that unique to its practice. Kundalini Yoga may also be considered a “New Age” type of yoga, by some. An open mind is needed to take Kundalini Yoga, as its methods are very different than traditional western thought processes.

The movements that comprise Kundalini Yoga are sequenced into kriyas, practiced to release Kundalini energy. The Kundalini energy is generated by the focus on the body’s chakras. By focusing on the chakras in the body, spiritual power, or Kundalini energy is generated. in the body in order to generate a spiritual power. The result of a regular Kundalini yoga practice is a higher awareness, consciousness, and overall well-being.

The transformational gifts of Kundalini Yoga are here for you to explore and adapt to your life. There is no other discipline quite like it. It works on your entire nervous and glandular system. It prepares the mind for optimal clarity and greater use. It enlivens your sense of awareness and delivers a vast influx of inner energy and creativity.

The word “Kundalini” means awareness and hidden potential of that awareness; it is the greatness of which you are capable. In the Yogic tradition Kundalini energy is portrayed as a coiled serpent, lying dormant at the base of the spine. To raise the Kundalini means to awaken and enliven this creative storehouse of our energetic system.

Kundalini Yoga is the original and most powerful of the yoga, all of which are beneficial. The Yoga Sutras say that what you can achieve in 12 years of Hatha Yoga, plus 6 years of Raj Yoga, plus 3 years of Mantra Yoga, plus 1 year of Laya Yoga can be accomplished in a single year of perfectly practised Kundalini Yoga. So it is known as the fastest form of Yoga practise and personal development.

It is designed for the active person with responsibilities in work, the family, and the world. It was maintained as a secret oral tradition for thousands of years, which protected the techniques from abuse, but this created an unnecessary image of mystery around techniques that are truly practical and systematic.

Kundalini Yoga can be practised by anyone if it is done gradually and according to the instructions. In 1969, an acknowledged master of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, recognised the need to disseminate the techniques. He codified and released the teachings. He began training teachers to share these precious technologies for human calibre in the United States and around the globe.