I am physically challenged. Can I reduce my body weight by doing sitting postures of Yoga? I can't walk continuously for more than 5 minutes

Ans: Hi M, It is awesome that you want to get started with yoga. Reducing body weight is primarily dependent on diet and, secondarily, metabolism. Exercise helps improve our metabolism and makes the body function more efficiently. Yoga would be an excellent starting point for you. Here's what I would recommend - your routine should be moderately challenging for you - it should be optimally difficult, not severely. This means you should be able to recover from it easily - you should not feel tired or fatigued all day, and you should have the energy to practice the next day as well. This will be a discovery process. Let's take the example of walking - if your current limit is 5 minutes, you could set a goal to increase it to 6 mins in week 2. 8 mins in Week 3, 11 mins in Week 4, and 15 mins in Week 5. This is just a rough example of how you progressively increase intensity - the actual numbers can be higher or lower. You can do the same with yoga - the point is to constantly up the intensity just a little bit each time you come to the practice. I hope this helps; please consult your physician if you have any pre-existing health conditions. All the best.