Yoga For Eating Issues: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist, and Dr Stuart McGill, Yoga Teacher, Flametree Yoga Darwin

Does food feel like a fight, a comfort or a worry? Eating when stressed, eating past full and feeling out of control, or never feeling at peace with your body: these are common, and they can wear you down. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar, Dr Timothy McCall and the research say about yoga, pranayama (yogic breathing), meditation, mindfulness and mindful eating for eating issues. Last updated: 8 November 2026.

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Yoga for eating disorders and eating issues: the short answer

Yes, yoga and mindfulness are well worth trying for eating issues, especially binge eating and stress eating. In trials, yoga groups reported less binge eating, fewer bulimia-type symptoms, more self-compassion and a kinder view of their own body. Mindfulness programmes, including mindful eating, went with less binge eating, weaker food cravings and better handling of strong feelings. For anorexia the trials say little so far. Yoga is best seen as one part of the support a person chooses, not the whole of it.

A word on words. Many people search for yoga for eating disorders. We use the gentler words “eating issues”, because they cover the whole range, from everyday stress eating to a diagnosed condition. And a note on the research: the trials tested yoga of many kinds and mindfulness courses. No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga, the style we teach, for eating issues. Why the kind of yoga matters.

This guide is not about weight. You will find no weights, calorie counts or targets here, on purpose. It is about the relationship between you, your body and food.

The bottom line: five key moves for eating issues

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, regularly. The trials ran from 4 sessions to 12 weeks, most often once or twice a week. Tell your teacher about anything that matters to you.
2. Practise for how it feels, not how it looks. In the research, yoga practised for the feel of the body went with better body image; exercise done for appearance did not.
3. Add breath work (pranayama). A slow, quiet breath calms the mind and brings stress, worry and anger down, and stress is a common trigger for eating to cope.
4. Bring the same attention to the table. Mindful eating means noticing hunger, taste and fullness with kindness. Mindfulness programmes went with less binge eating and weaker cravings.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Moderate. Best study: A 2025 review of 54 studies found that mindfulness programmes went with clearly less binge eating than doing no programme, at the end and at follow-up, and about as much as other talking therapies. A 2020 review of 11 yoga trials (754 people) found less binge eating and fewer bulimia-type symptoms with yoga than without it.
• Mr BKS Iyengar: practice builds a sensitivity to what the body needs each day; a good pose done a little beats a bad pose done a lot.
• Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr BKS Iyengar, author of Yoga as Medicine: eating disorders are no. 29 on his list of conditions helped by yoga; he says mindfulness helps people notice when they are full.
• The research: about 30 trials and reviews listed below, for yoga, breathing, mindfulness and mindful eating.
• Teaching safely: from a book by clinicians and yoga teachers: no body talk, real choices, no pushing, practice for how it feels.
• Take it further: our free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga, the 2027 masterclass on anxiety, upsets and anger, and classes in Darwin and online.

What eating issues are

“Eating issues” covers a wide range. At the everyday end are stress eating and emotional eating (eating to cope with feelings), strong food cravings, and unhappiness with your body. Binge eating means eating a large amount while feeling out of control. Bulimia is a cycle of binge eating and then trying to undo it. Anorexia means eating very little, with intense fear around food and body size. The last three are formal diagnoses, and many more people live with the milder patterns.

It is common. Deloitte Access Economics, in its 2023 report Paying the Price, estimated that about 1.1 million Australians, around 4.5% of the population, were living with an eating disorder in 2022 to 2023, up by about a fifth since 2012. That is an estimate, and the everyday patterns such as stress eating are not counted in it.

Eating issues often travel with stress, worry and low mood. If one of these is part of your picture, that guide goes into more detail:

• Anxiety and anger
• Stress and burnout
• Depression and low mood
• Stress eating and mindful eating in everyday life

How yoga breaks into the stress eating circle

“Asana practice guides one in having sensitivity for eating what the body needs each day.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar teach?

In short: practice builds a quiet sensitivity to the body, and that sensitivity reaches the table. What follows is known from long practice and teacher experience, and has not been tested for eating issues by modern research. Not yet tested is not the same as wrong.

• Sensitivity, not rules. Mr Iyengar wrote that asana practice guides a person to eat what the body needs each day (Yoga Wisdom and Practice). That is listening, not a diet.
• Yoga first, then food. “For them food comes first and then yoga. For me, it is yoga first, then food” (Yoga Wisdom and Practice). We practise on an empty stomach, and come to the meal after.
• A good pose done a little. “It is better to do a good pose minimum than a bad pose maximum” (Light on Life, Kindle edition). Driven, punishing practice is not the aim.
• Feelings are met, not pushed down. On emotions such as anger and fear, Mr Iyengar wrote: “Suppression does not work” (Light on Life). Practice gives a steady place from which to meet them.
• A soft belly. Geeta Iyengar, his daughter and a senior teacher in her own right, told a women’s class in Sydney in 1996: “Relax the abdomen. Learn to make the abdomen soft.”
• Rest is part of the practice. Every Iyengar class ends in Savasana (supported rest). For people with eating issues, lying still can be the hardest pose of all, which is why it is taught step by step.

“As long as you take food, you need yoga.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: eating disorders are on his list, and he sees mindfulness as the bigger part of how yoga changes eating. Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr Iyengar and wrote Yoga as Medicine, published a list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga in June 2019. “Eating Disorders” is no. 29. Our encyclopaedia uses his list as its backbone and builds on it with newer research.

His reference list for no. 29 named a study of yoga, body awareness and self-image in women (Daubenmier 2005), the first randomised trial of yoga for young people with eating issues (Carei 2010), a trial of yoga for coping with distress (Medina 2015), an outpatient yoga pilot (Hall 2016) and a randomised trial of yoga before dinner in a residential programme (Pacanowski 2017). The trials are described below. In his talk “Yoga and Weight Loss: The Science and the Myths”, Dr McCall says that when you really pay attention as you eat, you “may notice the subtle cues that suggest that you’re getting full”, and that this mindfulness is “probably an even bigger factor” than calming the stress hormone cortisol.

What does the research say about yoga for eating issues?

In short: yoga trials found less binge eating, fewer bulimia-type symptoms, more self-compassion and a kinder body image. Mindfulness and mindful eating have the most research behind them, mostly for binge eating and emotional eating. Results are clearest against doing nothing; against other therapies they are about level. Most trials were in younger women and ran 4 to 12 weeks. For anorexia the trials say little so far. Most trials tested yoga in general, of many styles; none has tested Iyengar yoga for eating issues. Why the difference matters.

Reviews of yoga

• Yoga went with less binge eating and fewer bulimia-type symptoms (a moderate to large effect), a lesser gain overall and in body image, compared with no yoga. Borden and Cook-Cottone 2020, a review of 43 studies, with 11 randomised trials and 754 people pooled. The authors conclude yoga may support recovery. Read the study.
• Yoga and aerobic exercise each went with fewer binges in women diagnosed with binge eating. Vancampfort 2013, a review of 3 randomised trials and 211 women aged 25 to 63. Read the study.
• Effects ranged from none to very large, most in the low to middle range; the authors suggest yoga as one part of a wider programme. Ostermann 2019, a review of 8 randomised and 4 other trials, 495 people. No safety data were reported in the trials. Read the study.

Two newer reviews of people already in care for a diagnosed eating issue found no clear gain from exercise and movement programmes over the comparison groups, with low certainty (Bravo 2024, 11 trials of yoga, body awareness, dance and other movement; Martinez-Calderon 2024, 12 studies). These pooled many kinds of movement, and none was Iyengar yoga. Not yet shown is not the same as not working, but it is a reason to see yoga as one part of the support a person chooses.

Why the reviews differ

Yoga for binge eating and bulimia-type symptoms

• Binge eating fell and physical activity rose with 12 weeks of yoga, and not in the waiting group. McIver 2009, an Australian randomised trial at Deakin University; 90 women aged 25 to 63 started, 25 in each group were analysed. Read the study.
• Gentle yoga for 8 weeks went with less binge eating, less trouble managing emotions, less self-criticism and more self-compassion than waiting. Brennan 2020, a randomised trial of 53 women with bulimia-type and binge eating symptoms. The authors call the results tentative. Read the study.
• A 7-week yoga-based programme cut disordered eating, low mood and trouble managing emotions, and raised mindful eating and body awareness; most gains held at 6 months. Estey 2022 (Eat Breathe Thrive), a randomised trial of 168 people aged 18 to 65 in the United States and United Kingdom, against a waiting group. Read the study.
• Binge eating scores fell by about a fifth after 8 weeks of yoga; interval training did not improve binge eating. Li 2024, a randomised trial of 47 young women with mild to moderate binge eating, against interval training and no programme. Read the study.
• Yoga improved binge eating, stress and low mood as much as two kinds of interval training. Tian 2026, a randomised trial of 55 young women with binge eating, 8 weeks. Read the study.

Yoga alongside other care

• Adding yoga went with a steady fall in symptoms and less preoccupation with food after each session. Carei 2010, the first randomised trial, in young people with eating issues; yoga twice a week for 8 weeks added to standard care. Read the study.
• An hour of yoga before dinner eased low mood and worry before the meal, compared with usual care. Pacanowski 2017, a randomised trial of 38 people in a residential programme, 5 days. The effect was weaker after the meal. Read the study.
• Weekly yoga classes at a local studio went with less anxiety, low mood and concern about body shape. Hall 2016, a pilot of 20 teenage girls attending an eating issues clinic, 12 classes with teachers briefed on their needs. No comparison group. Read the study.

Body image

• Four yoga sessions raised body appreciation, body satisfaction and good mood, and the gains held at 4 weeks. Halliwell 2019, a randomised trial of 44 young women. Read the study.
• Ten weeks of Hatha yoga lowered self-objectification (seeing yourself from the outside) and deepened the sense of living in your body. Alleva 2020, a randomised trial of 114 young women. Read the study.
• Ten weeks of yoga raised appreciation of what the body can do, in adults with an average age of 52. Dagenais 2026, a randomised pilot of 57 adults, 86% women, against a waiting group. Rare for including people over 40. Read the study.
• Yoga may improve body esteem and body satisfaction, especially in teenagers with disordered eating. Bullard 2025, a review of 6 studies in people aged 8 to 21. Read the study.

Few of these trials included women over 40, the people who come to most of our classes. The 2026 pilot, with an average age of 52, and the Australian trial of women aged 25 to 63 are the closest. What they found points the same way as the trials in younger women.

Why the reason for moving matters

Iyengar yoga studies

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for eating issues. The trials used gentle yoga, Hatha yoga, Viniyoga and yoga-based programmes, and few say how the teachers were trained. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. In other conditions, such as back and neck pain, Iyengar yoga taught by trained Iyengar teachers has done well in trials. Its focus on precise attention, steadiness and supported rest is close to the body awareness these trials measured. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, that is likely to go further than the average. Why the difference matters.

Yoga in general and Iyengar yoga for eating issues

Breathing practice and pranayama

No trial has yet tested pranayama (yogic breathing) on its own for eating issues. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The nearest studies tested slow breathing guided by a heart rhythm app or device:

• Slow, meditative breathing with heart rhythm feedback was found useful by most people, with no serious side effects. Scolnick 2014, a pilot of 25 hospital patients with eating issues. No comparison group. Read the study.
• An 8-week slow breathing app went with early gains in body awareness, body appreciation, intuitive eating and stress. Mensinger 2024, a pilot of 28 healthcare workers, most of them women. No comparison group. Read the study.

The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril and humming breaths) is slow, quiet and taught step by step, often lying down with the chest supported. Several of the book’s authors noticed shallow chest breathing in people with eating issues, often with the belly held in, and suggested a slow belly breath, including around meals. That is their experience, not a trial result. Why the kind of breathing matters.

Meditation and mindfulness

Mindfulness means paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, without judging. It has the most research of any practice for eating issues.

• Mindfulness programmes went with clearly less binge eating than doing no programme, at the end and at follow-up, and about as much as other talking therapies. Liu 2025, a review of 54 studies. Programmes aimed directly at binge eating did best. Read the study.
• Binge eating fell by the end of mindfulness programmes, with less low mood and better handling of emotions; the binge eating gain had faded at follow-up. Grohmann 2021, a review with 11 randomised trials and 618 people. Read the study.
• Mindfulness programmes went with better handling of emotions, fewer binges and more awareness of body signals in people with diagnosed eating issues. Diana 2026, a review of 13 studies and 454 people. Most studies had a high risk of bias. Read the study.
• Online and app mindfulness programmes went with less binge eating and a little less emotional eating. Wei 2026, a review of 10 studies and 902 people. Read the study.
• Mindfulness weakened the strength of food cravings. Allameh 2025, a review of 24 controlled studies and 1,920 people. How often cravings came did not change. Read the study.

Not every review agrees. One 2024 review found clear gains for eating in response to food cues and for noticing fullness, but the gains for emotional eating and binge eating were too slight to be sure of (Kao 2024). So mindfulness helps most with noticing, and the change in behaviour takes time and practice.

Mindful eating

In short: mindful eating is mindfulness brought to the table. It means paying full, kind attention to hunger, taste, texture, fullness and the feelings around eating, without blaming yourself. It is not a diet, and it has no rules about what to eat.

For how calm and mindful eating lead many people to eat less, see our post Yoga And Weight Loss: What 23 Studies Found, And Why Calm Matters More Than Calories, which draws on a medical textbook co-edited by Dr Timothy McCall.

• Mindfulness meditation reduced binge eating and emotional eating in people who had them. Katterman 2014, a review of 14 studies. Read the study.
• A mindful eating group programme raised spiritual well-being, and that went with better emotional balance and eating regulation. Kristeller and Jordan 2018, a randomised trial of 117 adults, a quarter of them with binge eating, against a waiting group. The authors developed the programme (MB-EAT). Read the study.
• A 6-week mindful eating course went with less loss of control over eating, less binge eating, less stress and better mood. Dalen 2010, a pilot of 10 adults, with no comparison group. Read the study.

A psychologist and yoga teacher in the book describes a client who had been cut off from her body’s signals for years. Over many sessions of breath, poses and rest, she reached the point of saying she was “a little bit hungry”. That simple noticing is what mindful eating is made of (Lori Allen, in Costin and Kelly, 2016).

Chris has written about how yoga and breath meditation changed her own sugar habit, and why she finds mindfulness has to come first: Mindful Eating Workshop: How Chris Changed Her Sugar Habit.

“Suppression does not work.”

Teaching yoga safely for eating issues

In short: yoga can feed eating issues when it is fitness-first, focused on looks, competitive or tied to fasting and detox programmes. It helps most when it is about how the body feels. These cautions come from Yoga and Eating Disorders, written by clinicians, yoga teachers and people who have recovered.

• No comments on weight or shape. The authors advise teachers never to praise weight loss or remark on bodies, and to notice remarks students make about each other.
• Real choices. Offer options, so the person stays in charge of their own body. Resting is always allowed.
• No pushing. Steadiness and ease in a pose, not the furthest stretch. A driven, punishing practice is the old habit in a new form.
• Not fitness-first. Classes sold on burning, toning or detox can feed the problem.
• Rest with care. Lying still can stir up difficult feelings; it is fine to keep the eyes open or to sit up.

Surveys of people who practise yoga mostly link it with healthier eating and better body satisfaction. A few found that a very high amount of practice went with more disordered eating (Domingues 2019, a review of 12 surveys). Surveys cannot show which came first, but the message fits the book: more is not always better. In our view, this sits well with Iyengar teaching, where the work is on alignment, steadiness and rest, not on how a body looks.

How long and how often?

The trials ran from 4 sessions to 12 weeks, usually once or twice a week, and some followed people up to 6 months. Body image changed after as few as 4 sessions; binge eating fell over 7 to 12 weeks. In one review the binge eating gain faded after the programme ended, so keep practising.

“It is better to do a good pose minimum than a bad pose maximum.”

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Many of the studies above tested mindfulness and mindful eating courses, not yoga poses. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. So the mindfulness and mindful eating trials also show what a good yoga and pranayama class can build. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin and online.

• Attention on the inside. The work is on alignment, breath and steadiness: how the pose feels, not how it looks.
• Props in every class: chairs, belts, blocks, blankets, bolsters and the wall, so you can rest in a pose instead of straining in it.
• Your pace. Tell your teacher anything that matters to you. Classes are adapted to the people in them, and to how you feel on the day.
• Rest and breath to finish: every class ends with supported rest, and our pranayama classes go further.
• Gentle options: gentle yoga and restorative yoga for tired or tender days.

See the timetable and book a class. Body, then breath, then a quieter mind: that is the path a class follows, and it is why we offer poses and breathing together.

Read more on eating issues

• Yoga and eating less: why calm matters more than calories (23 studies, drawing on Dr Timothy McCall’s textbook)
• Mindful eating: how Chris changed her sugar habit
• Yoga and mindfulness
• How to calm your nervous system
• Nearby guides: anxiety and anger, stress and burnout, depression and low mood and stress eating and mindful eating

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See the timetable and book.
• Masterclass: anxiety, upsets and anger is one of our 2027 masterclasses with Chris Lalor. Come for the poses, the sequences and the pranayama that calm the feelings behind eating to cope. See the 2027 masterclasses.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga and pranayama in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for eating issues: questions people ask

Does yoga help eating issues?

The trials say yes, especially for binge eating and body image. A 2020 review of 11 yoga trials (754 people) found less binge eating and fewer bulimia-type symptoms with yoga, and some gain in body image (Borden and Cook-Cottone 2020). An Australian trial found less binge eating after 12 weeks of yoga (McIver 2009). No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga for eating issues.

Can yoga cure eating issues?

No. No practice can promise that. What yoga and mindfulness can do, in the trials, is lower binge eating, ease difficult feelings and build a kinder view of the body. Researchers and clinicians who use yoga see it as one part of the support a person chooses, not the whole of it.

What is mindful eating?

Mindful eating is paying full, kind attention to hunger, taste, texture, fullness and the feelings around eating, without blaming yourself. It is not a diet. It is taught in programmes such as MB-EAT, and a yoga class builds the same attention.

Does mindfulness help with binge eating?

Yes. A 2025 review of 54 studies found mindfulness programmes went with clearly less binge eating than doing no programme, at the end and at follow-up, and about as much as other talking therapies (Liu 2025). Another review found the gain faded after the programme ended (Grohmann 2021), so keep practising.

Can yoga help with body image?

Yes. In randomised trials, 4 to 10 weeks of yoga raised body appreciation and body satisfaction and lowered self-objectification (Halliwell 2019; Alleva 2020). A 2026 pilot found the same kind of gain in adults with an average age of 52 (Dagenais 2026).

Does yoga help with anorexia?

The trials say little so far. A few studies, mostly in young people alongside other care, found less preoccupation with food and less anxiety and low mood (Carei 2010; Hall 2016), but reviews of people in care found no clear gain from movement programmes (Bravo 2024). Not yet shown is not the same as not working.

Can yoga make eating issues worse?

It can if it is fitness-first, focused on looks, competitive or tied to fasting and detox programmes, say the clinicians and teachers who wrote Yoga and Eating Disorders (2016). Surveys found that a very high amount of practice went with more disordered eating in a few studies (Domingues 2019). Yoga practised for how it feels, with rest and no pushing, is a different thing.

Do breathing exercises help with stress eating?

Stress is a common trigger for eating to cope, and a slow breath calms stress. No trial has yet tested pranayama on its own for eating issues; slow breathing apps were found useful in pilots (Scolnick 2014; Mensinger 2024). We teach slow, quiet pranayama step by step.

Can I do yoga for eating issues in Darwin or online?

Yes. Flametree Yoga teaches Iyengar yoga in Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online, with gentle and restorative classes and pranayama classes for the breath. New students can begin with our new-student offer of 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Book a class

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga Wisdom and Practice, Light on Life (Kindle edition) and Yoga Rahasya (1999); Geeta S Iyengar, women’s class questions, Sydney, 1996. Timothy McCall MD, his June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga and its reference list, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), and his talk “Yoga and Weight Loss: The Science and the Myths”. Carolyn Costin and Joe Kelly (eds), Yoga and Eating Disorders: Ancient Healing for Modern Illness (Routledge, 2016). Deloitte Access Economics, Paying the Price, second edition (2023). Studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.