As the weather warms and we start to shed layers, you may be thinking you also need to start working on shedding your winter weight and getting swimsuit ready. It’s the natural course of things. We build during Kapha season (winter) and lighten during the Pitta and Vata seasons (summer and fall).

As you start to shape and tone, I want you to remember that global form does not always follow function. There is such a thing as too skinny. By that, I mean that there is a point when 4 of our 7 major bodily tissues stop functioning appropriately, if we lose too much fat. I’ll explain this a bit more, below.

We are part of a culture where fat is villainized. The modern American concept of female beauty is, for the most part, skinny — essentially Vata-predominant. Not only does this corrupt the self-image of the other two-thirds of the population (Pitta and Kapha types), but it can also create a slew of stealthy health problems for everyone that’s underweight for their body type.

Before I go into exactly what health problems can be expected from too little body fat, it’s important to understand the Ayurvedic concept of tissue nutrition. The end-products of digestion directly nourish lymph, the first in a cascade where each tissue nourishes another:

Lymph nourishes blood
Blood nourishes muscle
Muscle nourishes fat
Fat nourishes bone
Bone nourishes nervous and articular tissue
Nervous and articular tissue nourish reproductive tissue
Reproductive tissue nourishes ojas (our vital essence)

So you can see, not having enough body fat will affect bone, nerve, joint, and reproductive health! More specialized derivatives, considered superior and inferior products of the main tissues, are also created through this cascade of nourishment. These include small ligaments, flat muscles, and tendons, sweat, teeth, hair, nails, tears, and oily secretions of the eyes and feces. When there isn’t enough fat to nourish subsequent tissues, all of these products are diminished as well.

What does all this mean for you? A few ways too little body fat could manifest (there are more, I promise) are frequent cavities, hair loss, brittle nails, osteopenia, cracking joints, arthritis, dislocated joints, back pain, dry eyes, constipation, decreased memory and clarity, insomnia, numbness, low libido, dysmenorrhea (discomfort during menses), amenorrhea (absence of menses), infertility, fatigue, and low immunity.

Modern science has long known a connection between percentage body fat and amenorrhea — the end stage of severe tissue malnutrition. Ayurveda fills in the gap for what might be expected in between.

In the school of my own body, I’ve learned that if my weight/body fat drops below a certain level, I see more hair fall on my yoga mat, sleep less deeply, and have dysmenorrhea. If you’ve ever been underweight, you may have noticed similar problems. It never ceases to thrill me that I now I have an understanding for why these things are true.

Vibrant health looks and feels so much more beautiful than what we may conceive from models in fashion magazines. There really is such a thing as too skinny, and I believe it occurs a few pounds before what many of us would conceive to be the case.

“Am I healthy?” “Am I satisfied?” “Am I vibrant?” I feel these are more important questions pertaining to inner and outer beauty than “I wonder if my skinny jeans will fit me again?” My answer to the latter question is “maybe I should consider buying new jeans.”

Happy Spring,

– Nisha Khanna, M.D.

Are You Too Skinny?