Please, can anyone explain?

[feronia]

I've been doing yoga for over two years but my daily home practice only started about two months ago. I think my home practice has contributed to the progress that I feel I have been making. I can do headstand now as well as other asanas such as the crow. I feel that my body is stronger everyday. However, there are some changes which I find puzzling.

1. I love milk (though I'm a lactose intolerant), and mushroom. Today, I drank some milk with a little coffee and had some mushrooms. In the evening, I did my usual home practice. Afterwards, I began to pass gas so much and so frequently. What do you think went wrong? Is it normal? I do pass gas sometimes during yoga but not as much as today.

2. My friends say and from what I've heard that a yoga practitioner normally has a lean body. My yoga teacher also slim and lean. I know that being slim is not the aim of doing yoga. That's not my aim. However, some of my pants are getting a bit tighter I feel. And I notice that now I wear bigger size of blouses, shirts, T-shirts. From S to M sometimes L. Can yoga contribute to weight-gaining?

Thank you

[MBelleK]

I'm certainly no yoga expert, but doesn't lactose intolerance usually cause one to get gas when they ingest dairy? Or was the dairy intake consistent with your usual?

Also, I've been a daily practitioner of yoga (at home) for about 3 months now, and I've noticed that sometimes I seem to have more gas than others when I do a lot of poses involving twisting, or just when I am doing a more intense practice.

I always just assumed that my body was moving things along more efficiently??

Like you, I have always heard of yoga helping with weight control/weight loss, etc. Did you have a more intense workout routine that you have replaced with yoga? For example, if you were running 5 miles a day, and replaced that with 30 mins of yoga -- the yoga might be detrimental as far as weight goes....

But then again, you said that you're doing some pretty difficult poses, (CROW!? ) so I'd imagine you're practice is pretty vigorous, yeah?

Are there other areas of your life that could be contributing? Diet? Stress @ work, etc?

[feronia]

I think lactose intolerance causes one to get gas when one ingest dairy yes. Somehow my body seems to accumulate gas easily..

As I said that I had previously had some milk hours before yoga, and as you said that you tend to have more gas when doing poses that involve twisting and when doing a more intense training, then perhaps yesterday, due to the gas accumulated from the milk and the intense practice and twisting, I was perhaps passing a lot more gas than usual, wasn't I? I did quite an intense practice that day.

As for the weight-gaining, the strange thing is, some people notice it and some don't. And I don't feel I have a lot of fat around my waist. Instead, it feels solid. Could it be muscles?

And yes, I do crow more comfortably. And I've been trying to do pincha mayurasana with the help of wall.

[InnerAthlete]

Originally Posted by feronia

1. I love milk (though I'm a lactose intolerant), and mushroom. Today, I drank some milk with a little coffee and had some mushrooms. In the evening, I did my usual home practice. Afterwards, I began to pass gas so much and so frequently. What do you think went wrong? Is it normal? I do pass gas sometimes during yoga but not as much as today.

That is an odd combination - mushrooms and coffee and milk. I do not advocate the consumption of coffee to my students. Additionally cow's milk is created to grow a small cow into a large cow. Mother's milk is designed to grow a small human into a larger human. Once that is accomplished the need for milk is significantly reduced despite what the Dairy lobby might have you believe. If calcium is a concern then deep, green leafy veggies can provide sufficient amounts of that for healthy bone structure.

Coffee is a diarrhetic and therefore effects the digestive process, tract, and bowels. Try herbal tea with rice milk and mushrooms.

Originally Posted by feronia

2. My friends say and from what I've heard that a yoga practitioner normally has a lean body. My yoga teacher also slim and lean. I know that being slim is not the aim of doing yoga. That's not my aim. However, some of my pants are getting a bit tighter I feel. And I notice that now I wear bigger size of blouses, shirts, T-shirts. From S to M sometimes L. Can yoga contribute to weight-gaining?

Absolutely inaccurate. This is the same way Sarvangasana is misunderstood as a stimulator of the immune system. Yoga is a balancer. Some kapha people have larger bodies, bigger bones, fuller frames. It has nothing to do with their ability to evolve, heighten self-awareness, or do asana, pranayama, or meditation, not to mention bringing light into the physical body.

This all presumes everything else is equal. A body out of balance tends to move more out of balance. A body that is in balance tends to crave that which brings it more in balance.

Obviously a student who is eating only ice cream and cookies will not have the same effects in the physical body as a student who has a cleaner diet. I am merely saying that when all other things are equal yoga does not make you slim. That is a complete myth created by crafty marketeers. Some people absolutely need to gain weight while others absolutely need to lose it. Yoga should facilitate both.

[Yogamma]

Hi Feronia,

Did u check your increased weight on a weighing scale, if you have then how much has it increased, if it has increased, that is ?

Do you drink warm milk or cold ??

Let me know, i think will be able to elaborate on the reply better if you answer these questions.

[feronia]

Hi Yogamma,

Yes I've checked my weight recently coz I feel that I've gained weight.

I have never been really slim since I was a kid. But when I was 25 or so I managed to lose weight and keep it, I think. My weight ranged 48 - 50 kilograms. For the past few months I've started doing home practice, although I began doing yoga about two years ago. Lately I've found strange things such as wearing bigger size of trousers, blouses, shirts and T-shirts. I suspected that I'd gained weight so I checked on a weighing scale and I was right. Now I weigh 53 kilograms despite an hour of home practice yoga daily. But another strange thing is that, though I weigh more that I used to, I feel light at the same time. I can do boat, headstand, crow, which were so hard for me to do before. So when I realised I'd gained weight, I was wondering if there had been something wrong with the way I practice...?

[feronia]

Hi InnerAthlete,

So, do you mean that my gaining weight is probably due to my body type, which is Kapha Dosha? If so, would it be possible that nothing's wrong with the way I practice?

[Yogamma]

Hi Feronia,

Sorry for replying late. Hmmm 53kilos, well I don't know whats your normal range of weight as per your height...but guessing that you must be knowing that well....

Look, Yoga won't make you gain weight & if you do practice it wrongly, then the repercussions are more in form of breathlessness or constipation or acidity etc, clearly indicating that whatever you did caused a dosha imbalance. however, the practices that might go wrong, are usually the cleansing kriyas & the higher variant of Pranayamas (i am guessing that you aren't doing that form of Yoga).

Now, modulate your diet a little, first things first, stop drinking cold milk, do not drink at night, prefer warm milk (as you really like it, though you must avoid due to your lactose intolerance) & during day. Besides that, eat light, and eat frequently. I'm not very sure if you are a kapha type. If you can expound further on that, i can give you a better diet chart.

Diet plays a huge role with Yoga. May be the practices you are doing are not at fault, the diet that you are adapting might be.

Hope this helps...

Take care..

[Pandara]

Dear Feronia,

Sorry for being blunt here, but they way you described it I thought you were talking about 10-20kgs of weight gaining. Depending on your lenght I would say stop worrying so much about it, while you are so extremely body consciouss you miss the whole point of yoga and that is the liberating effect it has on issues such as these - to end the suffering that is associated with such preoccupation.

By the way some mushrooms are known to create gas - best to avoid them if you know you are going to do some yoga.

About the milk, I drink about 500ml of beautiful full cream, organic milk daily (with some honey added to it) and I have never experienced gas, perhaps you don't metabolise the lactose so well. Each body differs from the next.

Good luck.

[InnerAthlete]

Originally Posted by feronia

Hi InnerAthlete,

So, do you mean that my gaining weight is probably due to my body type, which is Kapha Dosha? If so, would it be possible that nothing's wrong with the way I practice?

No. I mean "possibly" not probably. It depends on the variables. You may be a perfect weight for you, your life, at this point in time. Or not. Both must be considered. Kapha dosha can tend to be a more solid physique.

There may not be anything at all wrong with your practice. Again, it depends.