I get asked a lot about what yoga to do for weight loss, or what pose to do for weight loss. If only weight loss were as simple as doing a yoga pose!

To be honest, I’m probably not the best person to ask for weight loss tips – I’ve been more or less the same weight for the last 10 years of my life (I haven’t grown in height for 15 years… Heh.) My parents didn’t become overweight until they moved to America and gorged on the American diet… and I am pretty good at (sub-consciously) regulating myself. It’s not like I was born with skinny genes – like I said, my parents gained weight later in life (but my relatives in Asia stayed slim.) I can speculate as to why, but my general belief is that Asians tend to subscribe to the belief that we should eat until we’re 80% full (ba fen bao, for those Mandarin speakers out there.) I know there is also the belief that you should eat everything on your plate. These 2 ideas get along – just don’t stack your plate with more than you can eat.

As for exercise, Americans consciously exercise more than people in any other country I know (based on personal observation – this may not be a fact), but we are still one of the heaviest countries in the world.

It’s not to say exercise is bad, but you have to see everything in a holistic way – every action you make contributes to your current state. One pose isn’t going to save you.