How Yoga Can Help You Reach Your Weight
Can you do yoga for weight loss? Absolutely, and it’s an especially good choice for beginners looking for a low-impact exercise option. Gentle beginner’s flows can help you become familiar with the movements, increase strength through bodyweight moves, and get your body used to moving and breathing hard. And once you’re ready to move on, you can choose more strength- or sculpting-based yoga flows to help you build muscle and burn calories.
Compared to high-intensity impact training , cardio, or weightlifting workouts, yoga will leave you feeling refreshed instead of wiped out, loose and flexible instead of tight, and can even be beneficial for your mental health. So what kind of yoga should you do for weight loss? We talked to some experts to find out.
The Single Best Thing You Can Do For Successful Weight Loss
Theres only one sure way to successful weight loss. And its dead simple.
Calorie deficit.
Period.
No matter what youve read or heard somewhere, there are absolutely no magic pills, workouts, number of reps, supplements, coaches that will help you lose weight.
Plus, all the popular diets for weight loss paleo, keto, intermittent fasting, plant-based are effective only because they reduce your food intake by restricting the time window when you eat or foods you can consume.
You can achieve a calorie deficit in two ways.
Notice that Im not using the word exercise here. You can lose weight by cleaning windows or taking strolls with your dog. As long as you burn more calories than you eat, you will be losing weight.
If only burning calories was that easy!
So heres is a question I hear a lot: I hate exercise, but I want to lose weight. Is it possible?
The answer is a definite YES, but
Remember that when youre in a calorie deficit, youre also losing water and muscle.
To lose fat and preserve lean mass, you need a combined power of:
Get the freebies!
How Does It Work
In 2005, medical researcher and practicing yogi Alan Kristal, DPH, MPH, set out to do a medical study on the weight-loss effects of yoga.
With funding from the National Cancer Institute, Kristal and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle led a trial involving 15,500 healthy, middle-aged men and women. All completed a survey recalling their physical activity and their weight between the ages of 45 and 55. Researchers then analyzed the data, teasing out other factors that could influence weight change such as diet or other forms of exercise.
Continued
The end result: They found yoga could indeed help people shed pounds, or at least keep them from gaining weight.
“Those practicing yoga who were overweight to start with lost about 5 pounds during the same time period those not practicing yoga gained 14 pounds,” says Kristal.
For the study, he says, practicing yoga was defined as at least one 30-minute session per week for four or more years.
Kristal says it’s not clear just how yoga might help people keep off the pounds, at least from a scientific standpoint. His own opinion is that the effects are subtle, and related to yoga’s mind-body aspects.
“The buzzword here is mindfulness — the ability to observe what is happening internally in a non-reactive fashion,” he says. “That is what helps change the relationship of mind to body, and eventually to food and eating.”
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Yoga And Better Sleep
Practicing yoga can help improve the quality of your sleep. You may find that youre able to fall asleep more easily and sleep more deeply when you have a consistent yoga practice. Ideally, you should sleep between 6 and 9 hours each night.
Quality sleep is often associated with weight loss. A 2018 study found that people who had restricted sleep 5 times per week lost less fat than the group that followed their normal sleeping patterns. Both groups were limiting the number of calories they consumed, suggesting that sleep loss has an adverse effect on body composition, including fat loss.
Yoga nidra is a form of guided relaxation that may help you to sleep more deeply and increase mindfulness. You can also set intentions during yoga nidra, which may help you develop weight loss goals.
A small 2018 study found that healthcare workers who did yoga nidra for 8 weeks increased their levels of mindfulness. This mindfulness included acting with awareness and not judging inner experiences.
Their levels of sleepiness werent significantly different at the follow-up. However, this score improved the longer people did the practice. Larger, more in-depth studies are needed to expand on these findings.
Calories Burned In Hot Yoga
Typically, more intense exercise burns more calories. For example, jogging burns more calories than walking and sprinting burns more than jogging. How long you practice, your current weight, your fitness level and gender also play roles in how many calories you’ll burn.
But one thing is for sure: Estimates for calories burned during a Bikram yoga class, for example, vary widely and may be inflated. While some practitioners claim you can burn 1,000 calories per class, scientific research doesn’t support that.
In a 2014 study performed at Colorado State University, lead researcher Brian Tracy found that on average, women burned 330 calories and men burned 460 calories per Bikram class.
Read more:Which Type of Yoga Is Best for Weight Loss?
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Adho Mukha Svanasana Downward Dog Pose
Adho Mukha Svanasana tones your whole body with a little extra attention to specific muscles.
It helps to strengthen your arms, thighs, hamstring and back. Holding this pose and concentrating on your breathing engages your muscles and tones them, as well as improves your concentration and blood circulation.
Sometimes Less Is More
Its not necessarily the hardcore class thats going to help, says Oakland, CA, physician Baxter Bell, M.D., whos also a yoga instructor and medical acupuncturist.
Ironically, gentle and restorative yoga can help with weight loss, Bell says by kicking on the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates breathing, digestion, and hormones.
As you jet through the day in fifth gear, your body is often in fight-or-flight mode, and high-octane hormones are circulating. By activating the parasympathetic nervous system, youre stepping on your internal brakes, which lets everything take a rest: hormones rebalance, injuries begin repairing, and digestion proceeds normally all of which can aid weight loss, Bell says.
YogaTuneUp® creator Jill Miller, whose method headlines classes at Equinox Fitness Clubs, points out that yoga’s weight loss benefits are both physiological and psychological. “Practicing yoga helps to increase your sensitivity to your inner signals such as hunger and cravings,” she says. “There are physical components to both of these sensations, but true hunger to feed our bodys basic needs is a totally different experience than craving foods that do not nourish us.
Gentle yoga is also a good way to start slowly, which is crucial if youre new to yoga to avoid injuries that could immobilize you and blow all hopes for weight loss at least for a while and serving as enough of a buzzkill that you write off yoga altogether.
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Keep The Fun Factors Going
Stick to your goals and diet plan and keep yourself motivated till the goals are accomplished. With your daily yoga routine, try to include these over the weekend:
- Go on short treks outside the city with your friends. Being outdoors helps you be close to nature and gives you the required break from your yoga schedule.
- Plan a beach trip. When was the last time you walked barefoot on the white sands of the blue seas while the froth of the waves kissed your feet? Make the best of a beach trip by walking on the never-ending shores, and don’t forget to carry your yoga mat.
- Bicycle anyone? Bicycling is another outdoor activity that gives you a good workout, and with friends around, you won’t even come to know the distance you have traveled.
It’s important to be outdoors as it elevates you, gives you a required break, and helps you prepare for the coming weeks yoga routine. More importantly, these activities help you torch down calories and eventually let you excuse yourself for that slice of pizza you’ve been dying for at the end of the day.
Feeling held back due to a physical ailment? Are emotions taking a toll on your personal and work life? Fill in the form below to learn more about how yoga can aide you in overcoming issues naturally with minimum lifestyle changes.
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Yoga For Weight Loss: Poses To Help You Lose Weight Yoga For Beginners
Yoga is an old Indian ancient technique. In ancient times Rishis and munis invented this yoga technique to give a better life to a human.
This Technique works and helped many human beings. Later this Yoga technique became much popular and accepted by humans. Now the Yoga technique is famous and adapted not only by Indians but adopted by foreigners.
Yoga techniques not only work physically but also gives mental relaxation. There are many postures in yoga, by which we can also reduce weight, and it also works for anxiety, mental health, depression, the psychiatric problem can solve.
Yoga is popular all over the world. Now people understand the importance of the Yoga technique in their daily life. Yoga builds up confidence, happiness, and security within yourself, and it takes a life to the next level.
You can handle your life by yourself. It can give your body a beautiful shape. The different yoga style is purposed to reduced weight for a particular body part. Yoga has great importance in our life.
The International Day of Yoga is celebrating all over the world to show its importance in life. From 21 June 2015, International yoga day is celebrating, following its inception in the United National General Assembly in 2014.
Yoga day is celebrating to alert people about their health, and to teach people how they can lose weight easil, by simple steps of yoga.
These days every human being is going through many mental and physical illnesses. By yoga, we can get out of this problem.
My First Hot Yoga Class
My first lesson was a beginners yoga class and despite being a completely different pace to other exercise classes I had done in the past, something just felt really good about it.
It was a group lesson so I could feed off the energy in the room but at the same time it felt solitary in a good way. Everyone was focused on their own movements and what they needed to do. This felt like the exact equilibrium I had been searching for.
The instructor was super energetic and motivating, and didnt make me feel awkward when she came to correct my form, and although the room was hot and you do sweat a lot, I didnt feel like one sixty minute lesson pushed me past the point where it was no longer enjoyable. I signed up that very same day.
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Precautions To Be Taken While Doing Yoga For Weight Loss
While executing yoga poses for weight loss, there are certain precautions you should be mindful of. Consider the following:
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Always consult your physician before undertaking any form of exercise or yoga.
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Asanas should be done at a slow pace, gradually moving to advanced postures.
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Try to avoid non-vegetarian food while being involved in yoga.
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Stay hydrated and wear clothing that is comfortable.
Yoga For Weight Loss: Benefits Beyond Burning Calories
- Niyoti Reddy, MD, Contributor
If you have trouble losing weight despite your best efforts, this is because obesity is a complex disease with many causes. A family history of weight issues can make it more likely that you’ll have the same issues managing your weight. A diet high in ultra-processed foods, sugar, and fat and being sedentary also contribute to weight gain. Stress and struggles with mental health, including medications to treat certain mental health conditions, poor sleep, and hormonal changes, are all factors that further contribute to weight gain.
There are many ways to combat excess weight, but there is no single solution. If you are trying to lose or maintain your weight, you may want to try yoga. There is good research that yoga may help you manage stress, improve your mood, curb emotional eating, and create a community of support, all of which can help with weight loss and maintenance.
Yoga can also help you burn calories, as well as increase your muscle mass and tone. Yoga may reduce joint pain, which in turn allows you to exercise more and increase your daily activities. These are only some of the many benefits of yoga.
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What Is The Average Cost Of Yoga
Yoga, whose name is derived from a Sanskrit word for unite, has done quite a bit of dividing in the U.S. A typical class can cost anywhere from $5 to $20, or more, and monthly studio memberships regularly run between $100 and $200roughly the cost of the average Americans food spending for a week.
Yoga Helps Build Muscle
Building muscle mass is another way yoga helps with weight loss and weight maintenance.
When we think of strengthening muscles, we think we have to go to the weight room and pump iron. In yoga, were using our own body weight as a form of resistance. Your whole body is working to keep you in balance so everything gets a workout, says Carol Krucoff, an instructor certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapists and Yoga Alliance and a yoga therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
Think of holding your body in place in a plank pose. Youre using the muscles of the shoulders, core, hips, and legs to hold your body up, she says. After coming out of a plank, you may flow into a Downward-Facing Dog pose, activating another set of muscles in your forearms, shoulders, and back. This muscle building burns calories, Krucoff says.
A review published in June 2016 in the journal Preventive Medicine that looked at 30 trials with more than 2,000 participants concluded that yoga can reduce waist-hip ratio in healthy adults, as well as body mass index in people who are overweight or obese.
Other research has found that even slower, restorative yoga classes improved fasting glucose levels in people who were overweight or obese a sign of improved metabolic health.
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Lose Weight With Yoga
Often, we blame our genes for us being on the wrong side of the weighing scale, don’t we? But give it a second thought and you will see that a lot is in our hands. This article gives you an insight to weight loss with yoga and is for those who would like to see a new self the next time they look hopefully into the mirror.
How Often Should I Do Yoga To Lose Weight
For the best weight-loss results, Janda recommended doing yoga three times a week. Continue to stay active and get your heart rate up on the other three to four days as well, whether through cardio workouts, weightlifting sessions, or HIIT workouts. And keep your diet in mind, too, by eating nutritional food and avoiding overprocessed products if you can. “Exercise alone without dieting makes losing weight hard,” Numbers said. “Weight loss occurs when you burn more calories than you consume.”
If you eat healthy and exercise, though, the results will come, and yoga can definitely have a place in the process, if you want it to. Roll out your mat and get started!
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How Yoga Helps You Lose Weight
by Catherine Carrigan | Jan 17, 2022 | Blog |
Its that time of year again you step on the scale, shake your head, determined that this year, finally, you have to do something about that excess weight.
As if the past two years havent been stressful enough, you now face the prospect of losing excess pounds.
Who wants to over exercise? Youre already too tired from all the stress.
Who wants to starve? If you dont eat enough you wont have the stamina to keep up with the demands of your daily life.
You may have tried all the stupid diets in the past and discovered quel surprise! they dont actually work. Or you lose 50 pounds and then you gain it all right back because you have not actually resolved the hormonal imbalances or the psychological stresses that made you fat in the first place.
What can you do that actually does work, feels good, lowers your stress hormones and increases your ability to adapt to our ever-changing society?
In this interview for the Natural Healing Show for UK Health Radio, medical intuitive healer Catherine Carrigan interviews Dr. Loren Fishman, author of Yoga for Weight Loss.
Dr. Fishman is the medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York City, author of 10 books as well as more than 90 academic articles and a world-recognized pioneer in the use of yoga to treat a wide variety of medical conditions. You can learn more about his wonderful work at this link.
Side effects of a regular yoga practice include:
