How kapalbhati helps in weight loss?

Question

I wonder how simple pranayama can help one to lose weight or achieve optimum weight. Please explain

Answer 1

Kapalbhati is one of the shatkarmas in the yogic discipline. Shatkarmas are meant to detoxify or purify the body so as to make it disease free. Diseases are the result of accummulation of toxins in the body; these toxins / morbid matter on account of the following:

1.     natural metabolism of food we usually eat
2.     Wrong dietary habits - Intake of wrong food (junk food, snacks, etc. - empty calories) or meals at incorrect time of the day or during improper attitude or stress
3.     Accummulation of stress hormones
4.     Wrong lifestyle
5.     Drug /substance abuse
6.     Side effects of Medications

Weight gain beyond normal weight of the body is usually because of imbalance of intake and expense of calories in the body and accummulation of the toxins in the body as discussed above, leading to malfunctioning and overburdening of the vital organs like kidneys, liver, intestines which are main detoxifying agents in the body as well as pancreas, spleen which are endocrine glands. When these detoxifying organs are overburdened or start malfunctioning because of excessive accummulation more than that of their exit from the body, then obesity or overweight first starts at around the abdomen and then later expands to other areas of the body like hips, buttocks, thighs, trunk, limbs.

During kapalbhati, three things happens in the body which are helpful for optmising the weight of the body:

(i) Oxygenation of the cells, tissues, organs increases due to which they starts functioning properly.
(ii) Metabolism increases - resulting to loss of excess of the weigth from the body.
(iii) Activation of the abdominal organs - liver, kidneys and intestines - these are exceretory organs which start excretion of the morbid matter/ toxic matter from the body as well as endocrine glands like pancreas and spleen which alongwith liver are responsible for sugar / glucose /fat management and hence responsible for weight management.


Kapalbhati no doubt helps in weight management alongwith management of other disorders.  But one also needs to take care of the diet as well for proper result in regard to weight loss.The following are the recommendations to be followed alongwith the practice of kapalbhati:

1.     The diet should contain maximum of fruits, wholesome cereals, sprouts, etc.
2.     The mastication time for each bite should be increased and chewed for atleast 30 times.
3.     The meals should be at time - lunch around 12-1 pm and last meal should be before 7-7.30 pm of the day.
4.     Avoid white sugar, salt, milk, processed wheat flour for best results. Instead, one can use jaggery, dates instead of sugar, sendha salt, almond’s milk and raagi as replacement to these avoided food items.

Sometimes it happens that stress is also the cause of weight gain as the stress interferes with the meals and sleep and disturbs the dietary patterns as well as sleep patterns, resulting into imbalance of hormones in the body. For this, I would also advice yoga nidra alongwith kapalbhati and avoid sedentary lifestyle.

To get better results in kapalbhati for weight management, one should learn the proper technique of kapalbhati