If you have been wondering, is yoga good for weight loss or whether yoga can help you lose weight then you’re in luck because yoga can be an incredible way to lose weight and burn fat.
Do you want to change the way you look? Do you want to lose weight and look ripped and toned?
Yoga can be the answer to all of your dreams!
Most people think yoga is a zen practice you perform by standing crossed legged with your eyes closed for hours but well, that’s not true.
Yoga has nothing to envy to any other fitness activity and it can even bring more and more benefits to both our body and our soul.
We are used to thinking that to lose weight we need to work out for hours, loft heavy weights or run for miles and miles.. all this might be true but actually, these kind of activities are not for everyone and activities like these can be quite stressing and not experiences from a place of serenity and calmness.
so is yoga good for Weight Loss?
Yoga can be perfect for losing weight and maybe just what you need that isn’t all go go go at 100 mph.
If you were to embrace yoga as a lifestyle you will see there’s a lot more than just doing yoga poses and flows.
Yoga for some is part of everyday life, it’s part of how you sleep, love, eat, and think. Where priorities are to maintain a healthy body, mind, and soul.
To lose weight from practicing yoga on its own, without having to follow the yogi way of eating and using yoga as a form of burning fat, then you can indeed be successful with using yoga as your fat-burning activity.
Here we look at how yoga can help you to lose weight and how it may be the missing link that you need to be successful on your weight loss journey.
Yoga, stress and weight loss
When you begin your weight loss journey, it’s natural for stress levels to rise, and it’s how well you manage your stress that can determine how well you do.
Why is stress a problem for weight loss?
Firstly, when we experience stress a hormone called cortisol is released into your bloodstream.
Cortisol is your fight or flight hormone, it tells your body to metabolize fat and carbohydrates to make energy.
The problem is, we are not stressed because we need to run or fight but for other reasons such as work, money, kids, etc. and the energy (fats) that have been made available by your body to use, isn’t actually needed.
After prolonged periods of stress, the body stores the unused energy in your abdomen as fat. Belly fat.
By practising yoga to reduce stress, you can lose belly fat.
Restorative yoga is ideal for helping to reduce your stress levels as it’s calming and focuses on relaxation and taking time to be quiet and peaceful.
Secondly, as well as yoga having positive effects on your stress levels for weight loss, yoga can also help give you a positive relaxed mindset, that you can use to enjoy your weight loss journey.
You may have experienced it yourself, when we get stressed we often turn to food or alcohol. You feel the urge to use food as a sedative. It’s a very common reaction.
But we all know where that leads. More belly fat and weight gain. So as you can see yoga is great for losing belly fat by helping you to reduce your stress levels which helps stop the accumulation of stress-induced belly fat.
So if you think about it, you can literally meditate yourself skinny by using yoga and meditation to reduce stress and cortisol hormone levels.
How yoga can help you lose weight by burning calories
Yoga is a physical activity just like any other form of exercise and you will burn calories by doing it.
With yoga, the whole body is in constant motion, although the level of effort varies according to the poses and type of yoga.
Therefore the type and form of yoga can have a huge influence on how effective yoga is for weight loss.
which type of yoga is best for weight loss?
The best type of yoga for weight loss is one that incorporates constant motion.
Hatha yoga for example is one of the lesser calorie burners that you can do as a lot of the poses are held still for long periods of time, though there are some tough poses such as plank pose.
Vinyasa yoga on the other hand is a great progression from Hatha yoga and is also ideal for beginners.
In Vinyasa yoga, the poses are the same or very similar to those in Hatha yoga. Vinyasa is faster and connects the poses together in a flow. The sequence and intensity of the poses increase your heart rate and creates heat which in turn burns more calories.
As you move up a level to Ashtanga yoga which is very dynamic, you will burn a lot more calories.
Ashtanga yoga is one of the best types of yoga for weight loss as you are in constant motion, doing some tough yoga flows.
If you truly want to use yoga to lose weight then you should aim to progress from Hatha yoga to something more dynamic such as Vinyasa or Ashtanga yoga.
In general, doing any asanas will help tone all the muscles of your body. Your body is constantly working, as long as you are not in corpse pose of course.
Yoga Can Increase Your metabolism
Yoga like other forms of exercise causes tiny tears within your muscles, you probably won’t feel anything or you may feel slightly sore the next day.
This pain which is often referred to as DOMS, delayed onset of muscle soreness, is a result of these small tears within the muscles. This is a good thing by the way and is more common in beginners.
This soreness and healing process can take up to 72 hours to occur when our metabolism will be working extra hard to help repair your worked muscles.
At the same time, yoga and especially Vinyasa and Ashtanga yoga will cause what’s called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), or you may have heard it called “the afterburn effect”.
What this basically is, is your body returning itself to balance on a cellular level or technically it’s termed homeostasis.
During this process of replenishing energy stores, healing muscles, regaining blood oxygen, and hormone levels back to normal all costs energy or calories which causes your resting metabolism to rise temporarily.
In addition to the immediate post-exercise metabolic rise yoga is great for developing st9orng toned muscles.
Just including yoga for 10 to 20 minutes a day can truly make the difference while toning your muscles.
As you gain muscle, resting energy consumption increases, helping you to lose weight quicker. So gaining a little muscle is positive for weight loss.
Last but not least, Yoga helps channel energy to reduce negative thoughts for the body and mind to help you live your weight loss journey not from a place of body shame, stress and disappointment for the way you look and the way you feel but truly enjoying your yoga journey one breath at a time, one asana at a time and one pound at a time until you get the body of your dreams.
how often should you do yoga to lose weight
Try to create a daily routine to truly give your body a chance to adjust and embrace a more active lifestyle yoga has to offer.
For yoga to effective at helping you to lose weight, you should aim to practice yoga at least every other day or 3-4 days a week for around 20 minutes.
Of course the more you can do the better and the faster you will lose weight.
Now it’s time to practice! Unroll your yoga mat, take a long deep breath in, a long breath out and do any one of these yoga workouts for weight loss.
Yoga workouts for weight loss
Here are some great beginner yoga workouts to lose weight to help you get started that all can be done in 30 minutes or less.
They are all Vinyasa-style yoga flows and we’ve selected three that we feel are perfect if you have been practicing Hatha yoga for a little while now and are familiar with the poses.
30-Minute Yoga Cardio Burn
This 30-minute fat burning yoga flow is based around yoga and uses some more common exercises found in streamlined exercise and combines the two.
30-Minute yoga for weight loss
It would be rude if we didn’t include a Yoga with Adriene routine. This routine is a 30-minute yoga flow for weight loss. It’s one of the slowest of the three and is best suited to the beginner yogi, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.
20-minute Power Vinyasa
Don’t be afraid of the word power, it just means you are in for a more vigorous workout, which of course is better for weight loss.
Like we said before, we chose these yoga workouts that would be best suited to beginners that are used to doing Hatha yoga. It’s just a bit faster than your normal yoga flow.
This 20-minute power vinyasa is good, we think you will like it.
Is yoga good for weight loss, yes, yes it is. Yoga when done as a flow it can be amazing for burning fat, building lean toned muscles, and helping to reduce stress which often leads to binge eating and raised cortisol levels.
For the most effective weight loss try to practice yoga as often as you can. Every day or every other day for around 20 minutes would see you achieve the best weight loss results.
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8 Beginner Yoga Poses For Plus-Sized Women
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Welcome! I’m Luke, a certified personal trainer with over 14 years of experience. With a BSc (Hons) in Sports Science, I specialize in tailored fitness programs for diverse clients who want to improve their lifestyle through exercise and healthy eating.