Here is an experiment that anyone can run themselves. First, learn proper abdominal breathing. Second, remove posture holding, applications, push hands and weapons from your Tai Chi practice, so that you are only doing the long form. Third, let your waist and hips drift out of their correct positions while you are doing the form.

Now your Tai Chi matches 95% of the Tai Chi community.

Practice this way, 2 hours per day, for three months straight, and watch what happens to your belly.

Then you can come back here, and tell me how Tai Chi really affects the human body!

Also, my own belly has gotten smaller since I started Taiji with him. This might be coincidence, but it does seem to go against the “Taiji will make your belly big” notion.

The movements you teacher advocates will certainly require more energy but, they cannot be relied upon to maintain weight. If a muscle/group of muscles does a certain exercise regularly they develop a greater tendency towards using aerobic energy (energy derived through burning oxygen). If your only exercise is Tai Chi I would recommend a suitable diet rather than weight loss exercises. If you have time for exercises I would recommend any sport which incorporates interval training (for example, strength training, which can be integrated into Tai Chi). This simply means you don’t do one exercise for very long so the body is more reliant on sugar and fat reserves for energy production. Still, a holistic method is always better (meaning take care of your whole body in every way you can).

Look at me, now I’m just another rambling, know-it-all poster. Remember, life is to be taken with a grain of salt.

This is he: http://www.taihui.com

He advocates higher leg lifts, more bending from the waist and lower postures.

Of course, the Chinese government raped tai chi chuan into tai chi and started selling that crap everywhere, so of course these impressions are persistent.