Yoga offers several health benefits, including improved flexibility, better strength, muscle toning and stress reduction. It also makes you feel better about your body and reportedly also improves your sense of mental well-being. However, the question that a lot of people have is whether yoga is really effective as a weight loss workout. If you want to lose weight fast, you probably want to know how well the hard numbers add up.
The Ineffectiveness of Regular Yoga
Unfortunately, most forms of yoga will not help achieve significant weight loss. This is because yoga does not raise your heart rate sufficiently enough and for long enough periods of time to work as a weight loss tool. On an average, a one-hour long session of yoga will burn about 160 calories for a 150 pound person, whereas a 3 mph walk for the same period of time will burn over 300 calories. Put simply, the figures don't seem to add up, especially if you are a beginner who is new to fitness and have very little flexibility. However, if you are already reasonably fit and have good reason to trust your body's current capabilities, yoga can become a means to lose weight fast.
A Powerful Exception
The one form of yoga which can help one lose weight, according to many experts and physical trainers, is known as Vinyasa Yoga. It involves a series of sun salutations, with varying postures, done without any breaks in-between. The postures are usually quite challenging and become progressively harder over the course of the session. One is also expected to breathe normally while doing Vinyasa Yoga. Doing this form of yoga will really raise your heart rate and keep it beating fast right through the session. This is what will eventually help you lose weight. However, practicing any of the forms of Vinyasa Yoga require reasonable levels of fitness, and beginners will need to improve their flexibility and strength before they can get to that level.
The most popular form of Vinyasa Yoga, especially in the west, is known as Power Yoga. In fact, Power Yoga has now become a very generic term used for any strenuous and intense yoga session, and different people practice it in completely different ways.
Indirect Weight Loss Benefits of Yoga
Apart from directly burning calories to help you shed your excess weight, yoga also has indirect weight loss benefits. For one, it tones and strengthens your muscles, and this improves your metabolic rate. So, you will end up burning more calories even while you are at rest. Besides, by reducing your stress levels, improving your sense of well-being and making you connect with and understand your body much better, it also helps you control and regulate your appetite. So, you are less prone to over-eating. This is why yoga is known to be so effective for people who have already reached a near-perfect weight and want to keep those excess pounds off.
At the end of the day, yoga offers a lot more than just burning calories. It gives you a complete package of health. It will promote good habits and improve your base of strength and flexibility. So, whatever weight loss exercises you take up, you will be able to do them productively, enjoy them and protect yourself from injuries.
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