Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of "Walking for Dummies." She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider. You can also follow her on Twitter @lizzyfit.

Photo: Photodisc

For all the magazine headlines touting the amazing fat-blasting powers of yoga, it's a relatively anemic calorie burner. A typical 45-minute class burns off fewer calories than a honey glazed doughnut, hold the sprinkles. Yet, yoga can help you lose weight, just not for the reasons you might think.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center recently quizzed 303 people about their activity and eating habits and then cross-referenced them to see which groups had the most insight into why they ate and what they ate. It turns out that the yoga devotees were more in tune with the social and emotional reasons they reached for a honey glazed than the average couch potato, and interestingly, even more so than the folks who walked into the same gym but headed for the treadmill, bike or weight room instead of the yoga studio.

When I was a child, my great uncle would bring me gifts from the Far East. He worked as a waiter on a cruise ship, a job that offered ample opportunity for visiting places all over the world, especially the Orient.

One of his gifts was a pair of Laughing Buddhas, which he explained would bring me luck if I rubbed their bellies. I don't know if doing so ever brought me luck, but it did bring me comfort in the idea that it could. And I still occasionally take part in the folkloric practice, although it does not form part of any Buddhist doctrine. Still, the Laughing Buddha is often admired for his happiness, plenitude, and wisdom of contentment.

There is perhaps a more effective technique within Buddhist tradition for bringing comfort to one's mind and ease stress. Mindfulness plays a central role in the teaching of the Buddha. It involves close examination of inner reality, upon which one finds that happiness is not exclusively a quality brought about by a change in outer circumstances, but rather by realizing happiness often starts with loosening and releasing attachment to thoughts.

The practice has become known as an antidote for various ailments, notably type-A stress and depression. Sounds like great news. And the better news is that one not subscribe to the whole belief system, albeit an attractive one, to borrow part of it as a means of calming the mind.

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[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature. Once a month she checks in with her fitness stats.]

• September 19
• Today's weight: 160 lbs.
• Up 1.5 pounds since August's check-in
• Pounds lost since June: 6
• Minutes it took to run my fastest mile this week: I don't even know

I've gained 2 pounds since the Hood to Coast relay, and I'm feeling a little lost.

Even this post is a day late. I normally blog the Road to Fitville on Tuesday. But what can a person say when her mouth is full of baked brie?