What would you say if I told you losing those extra pounds is as easy as taking a nice long breath and exhaling for just 2 minutes a day? Only it’s not me who is saying it, it’s Miki Ryosuke, a Japanese actor turned dieting guru and inventor of the famous Long Breath Diet.

Miki Ryosuke discovered the Long Breath Diet completely by accident. He was practicing breathing techniques to ease back pain, but noticed he was losing a lot of weight, which eventually amounted to 28 pounds and 5 inches in 50 days. Realizing the potential of his discovery, Ryosuke came up with a series of more effective ways of breathing in and exhaling, and created the now famous Long Breath Diet. The name is a bit misleading, because his weight-loss techniques have little to do with dieting and more with exercising. Basically, you have to have a certain posture, inhale through the nose for three seconds and than exhale aggressively through the mouth for seven seconds, while using your whole body to push out all the air. Apparently, repeating the process for 2 to 5 minutes every day will help you lose weight, or breath away the extra pounds, if you will.

There are two ways of practicing the Long Breath Diet:

1. Tighten the buttocks and place one foot in front of your body while placing 90% of your body weight on your back foot. Once you’re in position, breath in for 3 seconds while lifting your arms above your head. Then exhale contracting all the muscles in your body to help you get all the air out, for 7 seconds. It sounds easy enough, but most of the air comes out in the first couple of seconds, leaving you to flex your abs as you run out of breath.

2. The second method requires you to stand up straight and tighten the buttocks. Place one hand on your abdomen and another on your lower back, and breath in for 3 seconds while sucking in your midsection. Finally, exhale for 7 seconds and suck in your stomach even more.

That’s pretty much all you have to do to start losing weight. It might sound crazy to some people, but there is actually some logic involved here. According to Jil Johnson, creator of the Oxycise, a similar weight loss program based on breathing, “Fat is made up of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, when the oxygen we breathe reaches these fat molecules, it breaks them down into carbon dioxide and water. The blood then picks up the carbon dioxide – a waste product of our bodies – and returns it to the lungs to be exhaled. Therefore the more oxygen our bodies use, the more fat we will burn.” What that means basically is breathing will increase your metabolism. Not to mention the workout you get by contracting your core muscles as you exhale. While two minutes of long breaths a day seems way to little to actually be considered an efficient exercise program, Miki Ryosuke may actually be on to something.

Sources: Tofugu, Yahoo Malaysia