Yoga is a sophisticated set of exercises that help you connect your mind with body and it can also change your general outlook on life. A lot of famous Hollywood celebrities and elite athletes have incorporated yoga in their daily routines in order to improve performance in their respective fields. Yoga has several health benefits but does yoga help in losing weight? Practicing yoga definitely strengthens your muscles and improves your flexibility but some types of yoga don’t have the weight loss effect on your body because they don’t raise your heart rate enough to make you burn body fat. In this article, you will learn if you can use yoga for weight loss.
Does Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
As mentioned earlier, some types of yoga don’t burn a lot of calories as compared to cardiovascular exercises such as running or cycling but research has shown that yoga does in fact help you lose some extra pounds. Yoga is known for decreasing stress levels and as we all know, elevated level of stress hormones in the body can make you gain unnecessary weight. Moreover, it is a fact that most of the people start overeating when they are stressed out and thus gain some unwanted weight but yoga prevents overeating by keeping your stress levels under control. Yoga also increases the insulin sensitivity which signals the body to use food as fuel rather than storing it as fat and in the process, you also feel more energetic throughout the day.
The general rule of thumb for losing weight is that you need to burn more calories than you eat and this can be achieved through yoga as it helps in both physical and mental aspect of achieving your weight loss goals. Practicing certain types of yoga (Bikram yoga, Vinyasa yoga and Ashtanga Yoga) makes you burn reasonable amount of calories and mental aspect of yoga helps you address bad eating habits that are stopping you from losing weight.
Best Types of Yoga for Weight Loss.
For the purpose of losing weight, you need to do vigorous forms of yoga for at least 3 times a week. Following are the 2 best types of yoga for weight loss:
Ashtanga / Power Yoga.
Ashtanga means eight limbs in Sanskrit language and it is also known as power yoga amongst the masses. It is a vigorous and fast-paced type of yoga that is ideal for those people who want to lose weight. In ashtanga, a series of poses are performed one after another without any rest between them and all the poses are performed in the same order. A session of power yoga takes around 1 hour to be completed and makes you burn a lot of calories. Another advantage of this type of yoga for weight loss is that you can easily do it at home once you have learned the poses after taking only few classes.
Bikram / Hot Yoga.
Bikram yoga is named after its pioneer Bikram Choudhury and it is also known as hot yoga. It is a type of yoga which is done in a hot room with temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing yoga in such a hot environment ensures that your muscles are loosened for better flexibility and profuse sweating makes sure that your body is cleansed from toxic wastes. Bikram yoga is also very effective for losing weight because you can burn reasonable amount of calories in such a high intensity environment.
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