Weight and weight loss are concepts which come with a lot of emotional connotations in our society. Ayurveda has a lot of say on weight, from helping us keep a sensible view of our ideal weight through to solutions if you are overweight.
How can we use Ayurveda to know if we are at a healthy weight?
Ayurveda describes the ideal state of the body as being:
- well-covered with muscle
- having enough fat tissue to maintain a reasonable level of oiliness to the skin but without flabbiness (when fat tissue accumulates in the belly and buttocks and begins to create flabbiness, it is seen as excessive).
- having robust and rounded joints
Ayurveda recognises different constitutional types which will naturally have a lesser or greater degree of muscle and fat. Those with a kapha constitution will be heavier set, with more muscle and a more substantial layer of fat, vata will have much less and pitta somewhere in between, usually with good muscle structure. However, none of these constitutional body types should be flabby.
The modern measurement of Body Mass Index gives a healthy weight range of 18.5 to 25. We can make a good estimation that a healthy vata person would be the 18.5 to 20 range, kapha more likely nearer to 25 and pitta would fall in the middle or along the whole range[1]. Noting the distribution of fat tissue is a better clue in some instances, with the waist-height ratio giving a good measure for how much fat is being stored around the waist, more of which is often linked to worse health outcomes. A healthy vata constitutional types are more likely at the 0.4 end of the healthy range with healthy kapha types nearer the 0.6 end. This illustrates the need to be the right weight for YOU, not anyone else. If you’d like to find out your constitution, you can do our quiz here or get a detailed report about imbalances here.
Signs of being overweight according to Ayurveda
You may know just by the feeling in your body when things are out of balance and initiate a course correction. If not, there are some specific signs and symptoms of unhealthy weight gain which are mentioned in the Ayurvedic texts[2]:
The excessive hunger is caused by fat tissue blocking the channels of vata. This aggravates vata, creating fast movement of vata inside the abdomen which fans the flames of the digestive fire. This leads to voracious hunger and cravings for large quantities of food. Over time this then impairs the digestive fire further, increases all three dosha and creates āma, producing severe complications and even loss of life. The excessive, poor quality fat blocks other channels too, limiting nourishment to succeeding tissues (bone, bone marrow/nervous tissue and reproductive tissue).
The causes for this unhealthy weight relate to what you eat (eating too much ‘building’ foods or eating foods incompatible with your constitution), how you eat (not waiting until hungry to eat or not eating meals at specified times of the day) and lifestyle factors such as sleeping during the day (this includes sleeping after the sun rises), lack of physical activity and not having enough mental stimulation.
Solutions in Ayurveda for excessive weight
Holding onto excess weight needs a langhana or reducing[3] approach. This means that everything needs to have the action of lightening the load on the body and reducing the tissues. More specifically[4]:
Ayurvedic fasting for weight loss
Fasting is an integral part of Ayurvedic treatment and comes in many guises. There are different levels to it, and it is important to follow the right type of fasting for you. Lots more on this here. In short, there are three levels: bare minimum fasting, gentle fasting and stronger fasting.
Obesity is mentioned as a reason to go for the stronger fasting. This is fasting beyond hunger and is recommended even for a slightly overweight person. Do be careful to watch for signs of a successful fast (e.g. lightness in the body, good hunger and thirst) and don’t go beyond them (signs of which are experiencing loss of strength, loss of appetite, giddiness and so on). This fasting is not about starving ourselves or even calorie deficit for the sake of it, but a process of digesting up āma, balancing the dosha and improving our digestive fire.
What we eat has a large effect on our digestive fire and our dosha so try not to think of your weight loss method in terms of calories in versus calories out. It is more useful to think about the properties of the food you are eating. Are the foods you are eating helping the body clear channels or are they blocking them?
Specific Ayurvedic lifestyle, food and drink for losing weight
Here are some lifestyle, foods and drink choices that are very specifically mentioned in the Ayurvedic literature[5] to help with weight loss. Some of them are commonly accepted recommendations crossing many disciplines and some are unique to Ayurveda. Avoiding day sleep, inclusion of barley and millet, an emphasis on pulses for protein, including honey and buttermilk and avoiding water after meals fall into this camp.
Herbs used in Ayurveda to achieve a healthy weight
In addition to the culinary herbs mentioned above, you can consider including some medicinal herbs mentioned for weight loss in the ancient texts of Ayurveda. These have stood the test of time and include guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), triphala (three fruits), amalaki (Emblica officinalis) and shilajit (Asphaltum punjabianum)[6]. Other herbs known to be helpful are guggulu (Commiphora mukul), pippali (Piper longum), trikatu (three spices), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), neem (Azadirachta indica) and gurmar (Gymnema sylvestre). These are often prescribed along with raw honey. Gurmar has the fantastic benefit of combating sugar cravings which can really help sticking to healthy food.
Ayurvedic evacuatory therapies to help when overweight
For those who are very overweight, evacuatory therapies (panchakarma) are recommended, specifically scraping enemas (using sharp, drying and hot herbs), medicated purgation and medicated emesis. The enemas and purgation can be done in the UK (for example at our clinic) and medicated emesis is done in India.
Whether you are slightly overweight or more so, whether you have lots of energy to dedicate to getting in balance or not, you have many options with Ayurveda. Do book in for a consultation if you need help finding the best way forward for you.
[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4204287/
[2] Madhava Nidana Chapter 34, Yoga Ratnakara Medoroga Chikitsa Chapter 7
[3] Astanga Hrdaya Sutra Sthana 14/1-2
[4] Astanga Hrdaya Sutra Sthana 14/12-14
[5] Bhaishajya Ratnavali Chapter 39-6), Charaka Samhita Sutra Sthana 21/20)
[6] Charaka, Astanga Hrdayam Sutra Sthana 14/21-24
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