Does Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
Yoga is a combination of active and passive components that can transform your health for the better. Passive aspects like mindful meditation and breathing exercises (pranayama) are designed to enhance deep relaxation. Active components such as asana (postures), by contrast, are essentially workouts that promote weight loss efforts.
Are you obese or overweight and are having trouble shedding weight? The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines obesity as any adult with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or more. Obesity is a chronic condition that heightens the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. 2018 data from the CDC estimated that 42.4% of adult Americans with 20+ years are obese. The projected figures for the next decade also make for grim reading.
Despite that, many still struggle to manage their weight. Factors such as ultra-processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, genetics, hormonal changes, mental health, and poor sleep cycles contribute to weight gain. Several regimens have been suggested to promote weight loss, but active forms of yoga have emerged as potent practices that can manage stress, burn calories, increase muscle mass, improve mood, and curb poor eating habits – all factors that support weight loss.
So as you create the best mental, physical, and spiritual version of yourself through yoga, it turns out those sessions can contribute to your weight loss efforts too. This article examines expert take on how yoga works in different ways to maintain a healthy weight.
Yoga Burns Calories
The relationship between calories and weight gain is pretty straightforward. If you consume more calories than your body’s metabolism can burn, you are likely to gain weight. On the contrary, if you eat optimal or fewer calories and burn more through physical exercise, you shed weight. Researchers estimate that 500 calories burned equals 1 pound of weight loss.
Traditionally, yoga isn’t classified as an aerobic exercise. However, there are active formats and types of yoga that involve intense physical exercise. Active types of yoga such as power yoga and Vinyasa are fast-paced, and their sessions involve sequential postures that require practitioners to move constantly.
Other sessions can be conducted in heated rooms, which means you will break a sweat. The burned calories will contribute to your weight loss efforts. Furthermore, restorative forms of yoga are known to improve metabolism and muscle tone, and their emphasis on working out the core will burn abdominal fat in overweight folks.
Yoga And Stress Management for Weight Loss
Yoga is a derivative of Sanskrit whose practice aims to achieve perfect mind, body, and emotional unity. The core principles of yoga can be applied holistically to combat factors that contribute to weight gain. Stress is a culprit that leads to sleep deprivation, anxiety, and depression. Moreover, it triggers the production of the hormone cortisol which is known to cause cravings for fatty and sugary foods.
Yoga practice is not only beneficial for the mind, but it can lower cortisol levels, stabilize your mood, ease anxiety, lower blood pressure, boost metabolism, and improve sleep cycles. Improving the aforementioned symptoms will contribute to weight loss.
Mindfulness Yoga For Weight Loss
In finding a perfect harmony between the mind and body, mindful types of yoga such as Kundalini can increase your sense of awareness. We all know that fatty, sugar-rich, and highly processed foods are the main contributors to weight gain. Despite this knowledge, many people still give in to behaviors like binge eating that can hurt their weight loss efforts.
Practicing yoga, as it turns out, can boost your awareness of the habits that sabotage weight loss plans. As you develop more awareness, you will strive to avoid unhealthy dietary behaviors such as stress eating, emotional eating, and binge eating. The upside is, yoga will create a deeper sense to guide you on your choices for healthy dietary practices that promote weight loss.
Yoga Communities for Support and Acceptance
Most obese and overweight folks struggle with confidence and self-esteem. For whatever reason, some find it intimidating to walk into a gym, while others lack the motivation to embark on a weight loss journey simply because they have given up. Yoga culture, on the other hand, embraces the qualities of kindness, self-acceptance, and support.
Yogis and pro instructors create a sense of community that inspire beginners to live healthily. This social resolve, coupled with a conducive environment, can encourage obese and overweight individuals to take meaningful steps toward their weight loss goals.
How Much Yoga Is Appropriate for Weight Loss?
As cited earlier, consistent practice of active forms of yoga involves physical activity that contributes to weight loss. But the question is, how often should you practice yoga to achieve your weight loss goals?
Firstly, the CDC threshold for weight loss is 150 minutes of sustained practice every week for at least six months. You can do as much as you possibly can to fast-track your goals, but the bottom line is you should practice it more often to lose weight. Advanced instructors recommend the intense practice of at least one hour 4 to 5 times per week.
As a rule of thumb, newbies should start slowly to build strength, stamina, and flexibility, do light cardio, and take breaks to rest before they can embark on long, more intense sessions.
Yoga and Walking for Weight Loss
What Are the Best Yoga Poses for Weight Loss?
Practitioners agree that all forms of active yoga can promote weight loss. So, perform less of the passive meditation-style poses that mostly feed the mind, and conduct more active formats.
Whether you attend a class, a full session at the studio, or want to shed some weight from the comfort of your home, below are some of the popular postures you can perform:
- the Plank pose
- the Boat pose
- Sun salutations
Conclusion
Initially meant for spiritual fulfillment, yoga has been diversified to feed into different spheres of our lives. The practice of yoga is beneficial for mental and physical health and is a path that can bring the best out of yourself. The active phase of yoga such as power and Vinyasa has proven to be an effective tool for folks who harbor weight loss goals. Through their execution, active forms of yoga can feed into the mind and body to offer gradual steps toward weight loss.
