March 3, 2006 -- Yoga could be a way for overweight teens to get in shapeand lose weight, new research shows.

According to the CDC, the percentage of young people who are overweight hasmore than tripled since 1980, with 16% of children aged 6-19 considered to beoverweight.

In a recent study, high school students practicing yoga and breathingexercises on a regular basis shed an average of 6 pounds and trimmed their BMI(body mass index) by nearly 6%.

The finding comes from Anand Shetty, EdD, of Hampton University in Yorktown,Va.

"I recommend 30 minutes of pranayama [breathing exercises] and yoga,three to four times a week," Shetty says in an American Heart Associationnews release. "This also can easily be incorporated at home during leisuretime with other family members."

Shetty's study is being presented in Phoenix, at the American HeartAssociation's 46th annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology andPrevention.

Striking a Yoga Pose

Shetty studied 60 high school students for three months.

He randomly assigned half of the students to do yoga and breathing exercisesfor 40 minutes, four days per week, during the study. The breathing exercisesused "quiet, deep, forced breathing," Shetty says. Yoga includespostures that help build overall well-being.

For comparison, the other students did their normal activities, without theyoga program.

At the study's start, average BMI was 22.8 in the yoga group and 22.3 in thecomparison group. Those BMIs aren't considered overweight for adults. But teensare different, because they're still growing taller and BMI relates height toweight.

"Therefore, by adult BMI standards, we underestimate the normal BMI forteens," Shetty says. "For this study, only students with a BMI greaterthan 22 were selected."

Yoga Group Slimmed Down

When the study ended, the yoga group had lost 6 pounds and 1.3 points ontheir BMI, on average.

Dieting wasn't required. The yoga group's weight loss may stem from theexercises, or perhaps they ate less, Shetty says.

The yoga and breathing exercises used the teens' abdominal muscles. Usingthose muscles temporarily contracts the abdomen, including the stomach, Shettynotes.

He didn't study stomach size but suggests future research on therelationship between stomach size and hunger, as well as yoga's effects onbrain function, feelings of fullness, and hormones related to metabolism.

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