The researchers surveyed 15,500 healthy middle-aged men and women about their physical activity and weight history from the ages of 45 to 55. They found that regular yoga practice could reduce weight gain by three pounds. People of normal weight gained an average of 12.6 pounds during that 10-year period, while people who practiced yoga at least 30 minutes a week for four or more years gained only 9.5 pounds.

"The study promotes the idea that behavioral therapies, including yoga, could help weight loss," says Roger Fielding, an exercise physiologist at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. He cautions that the current study has some limitations, such as relying on people to remember their weight from several years ago, and says more rigorous tests are needed before recommending yoga for weight control.

INNER PEACE, THINNER BODY: Researchers found that creeping weight gain in middle age can be reduced by practicing yoga, which makes people less susceptible to stress-induced overeating and more sensitive to sensations of fullness.; PHOTOGRAPHER: Iris Schneider Los Angeles Times; F1 Mental benefits of yoga may boost weight loss, a study finds. Page 9