The Truth About Weight Loss And Yoga

By Alex Assoune Mar 16, 2021

Does yoga help you lose weight? Yoga is great for flexibility and helps you get back in shape. I love waking up early and starting the day with a quick yoga workout. With regular yoga practice, it is easy to get back into shape and build muscle tone.

Yoga tends to burn fewer calories than other types of exercise programs. But a regular intensive yoga class can help increase metabolic function and ultimately help anyone looking to lose weight.

Is yoga that effective for weight loss? Are certain yoga poses more favorable for burning excess body fat and get the results you expect? If you ever tried some weight loss tips before but failed, read on to find out why.

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Does practicing yoga help you lose weight?

Some claim yoga can help you lose weight. It is part of a growing trend of people prioritizing their health to avoid waistline disasters, but also lowering the risk of heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer. Is it true?

Yoga is not just about holding a few postures for some time and it is not meant only for fit people willing to increase their flexibility. Can we believe that practicing weight loss yoga poses helps anyone looking to lose weight? Or should we stick to regular exercise programs at the gym?

Losing weight is based on a simple mechanism. To burn stored body fat effectively, increased metabolic function is necessary to see results in an acceptable timeline. And one should eat fewer calories while burning more of them as fuel throughout the day. I recommend starting the day with oatmeal, for a healthy and hearty breakfast that also helps lose weight.

Yoga is recognized to burn fewer calories than other types of exercise like jogging, cycling, or working out at the gym. But in some cases, more intensive yoga practices will significantly increase the heart rate, boosting metabolism and help lose weight. Hot yoga is one of them.

By increasing blood flow and the rate at which the calories are burned, regular yoga practice will favor weight loss and your well-being. It's also a great way to start acquiring healthy living habits that lead to maintaining a healthy weight.

Main point: Weight loss yoga poses tend to burn fewer calories than other types of exercise programs. But a regular intensive yoga class can help increase the metabolic function and ultimately help anyone looking to lose weight.

What are the true benefits of regular yoga practice?

I believe that regular yoga practice can not only lead to weight loss but also increase metabolism, flexibility, and muscle strength. It will also help reduce anxiety, stress, and depression by focusing the mind and racing thoughts on the body, exercise, and deep breathing.

Yoga is a great way to strengthen your core and get back in shape. Holding the different postures a few seconds longer every day will make gaining strength a reality. It is great to increase endurance and resistance to effort and pain, which can help in other parts of life as well.

Some more intense yoga classes include strong cardiovascular exercises that promote weight loss. They are great for a healthy body and lead to a stress-free life. Yoga can help anyone make the necessary lifestyle changes to maintain a fit body. It brings awareness of one's thoughts, body, and mind, and makes practitioners more conscious about what their body needs and how they eat. Many advocate a vegan diet, proven one of the best for weight loss.

Main point: Weight loss yoga poses are great to reduce stress and anxiety while keeping the body fit, strong, and flexible. Intense cardiovascular exercises practiced during yoga classes burn calories, increase metabolism and stamina, promoting weight loss.

What are the best yoga poses for weight loss?

When trying to lose weight, it is best to focus on exercises that make use of large muscle groups. By soliciting a lot of different muscles, more calories will be burned for energy, making the weight loss results achievable quicker.

It is not so much important to focus on working muscles near the body region where you want to get rid of excess fat. Focusing on core exercises that engage the abs does not necessarily mean that you will lose weight on the abdomen or around the waist.

For significant weight loss results, choose yoga postures that are more intense but also beginner-friendly if you are just starting. Inversions or postures that demand extreme flexibility are not recommended for newcomers.

Prefer standing yoga poses that engage the leg and core muscles, as they are the fundamentals of yoga, easy to start with, and to scale up into more intense postures. I recommend all warrior postures, triangles, lunges, and planks as the best weight loss yoga poses.

Main point: The best yoga poses for weight loss engage big muscle groups to burn the maximum of calories. Standing poses are easy to start with and can lead to incredible results when practiced regularly.

What yoga style should you choose?

Some great yoga classes provide high-intensity workouts that tone the muscles deeply and help burn a lot of calories. If you are looking to lose weight, you should prefer fitness-based yoga styles that make you sweat, elevate your heart rate, and spend a lot of energy.

You could consider Bikram yoga. Performed under hot and humid conditions, it is great to get an intense cardiovascular workout that boosts metabolism and leads to sweating.

Ashtanga yoga is also a vigorous yoga practice that includes weight loss yoga poses. It focuses on moving quickly and powerfully to enhance strength and flexibility.

Derived from vinyasa yoga, power yoga has many benefits like increasing stamina and reducing stress. It is great to get your heart pumping and burn calories quickly.

Main point: Many styles of yoga are known to help lose weight. When starting, focusing on a practice that jumps your heart rate, gets your blood flowing, and makes you sweat is recommended to achieve the best results.

Many styles of yoga are known to help lose weight. When starting, focusing on a practice that jumps your heart rate, gets your blood flowing, and makes you sweat is recommended to achieve the best results.

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About the Author: Alex Assoune

Alex Assoune (MS) is a global health and environmental advocate. He founded Panaprium to inspire others with conscious living, ethical, and sustainable fashion. Alex has worked in many countries to address social and environmental issues. He speaks three languages and holds two Master of Science degrees in Engineering from SIGMA and IFPEN schools.

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