Yoga Articles > Yoga and Weight Loss
With the onward march of civilization, man with a zealous passion has aimed at improving his ways of life. A harmonious blend of curiousity, intelligence and zest to find solutions to the challenges faced, has enabled him to ameliorate and hike living standards. Unparalleled techno-cool machines and gadgets have aided him to reduce labour, mechanize work and redeem time. Formerly the task which would demand sweat of the brow and hours of intense labour, can niftily be done, by a few smart presses of buttons!
But this transition in lifestyle, is packaged with grave problems. The exercising quotient has dipped certainly, but without harmonious toning down of food habits it is bound to meddle with normal healthy physiology. A sedentary lifestyle (with a majority of the people bound to desk jobs, or jobs not involving physical exertion), excess intake of food than required levels, the junk food (food high on calorific values, low in nutrition and detrimental to health) magnet playing strong have cumulatively gravitated a morbid monster called “obesity”. People are getting restless as to how to beat the bulge and cut on calories.
Yoga comes in as the savior! Yoga can be defined as an exercise to stimulate and harmonize all levels of a biological system, physical, mental and spiritual. It is a powerful tool to burn calories and return to or maintain shape as it offers a holistic and versatile means of losing weight. Many people also choose to combine yoga with running, walking or other aerobic exercise in order to reach their weight loss goals.
How Yoga Helps Burn Calories..
The effect of Yoga on our body is simple yet extremely effective.
- Mobilization of fats: Certain breathing techniques (including 'Bhastrika' and 'Suryabhedana') massage the abdomen and the fat stored around organs. This activates the fat and makes it easier to burn off. The deep breathing in Yoga increases the oxygen intake to the cells of our body, including the fat cells which burn in contact with oxygen.
- Increased metabolism: Some breathing techniques help stimulate sluggish or inactive glands (specially the thyroid glands), helping them increase their hormonal output and abet weight loss.
- Awareness: One school of thought purports that it is the
mind/body awareness creation in yoga which is of pivotal importance.
Such awareness may translate to different eating habits, and more care
regarding what kind of food one puts into the body. People who have
greater body awareness may also notice when they feel full and stop
eating. This belief actually suggests that it is not the exercise but
the philosophy of regular yoga practice that may result in weight loss.
- Yoga offers a highly directed and target specific means for losing weight, for eg. if one wants to reduce one’s waistline or hips, particular yoga’s are available for achieving the same.
- Doing yoga decreases stress and anxiety, improves flexibility parallely increasing muscle tone and strength. Joint pain is the pet peeve of the overweight; yoga can help by improving the body’s alignment minimizing strain on joints by allowing the frame to bear more of the body’s weight. Yoga develops balance, reducing the likelihood of injuring oneself in a fall.
- Overweight people often feel disconnected from their bodies — yoga promotes mind-body synchronization, which can improve self-image and acceptance of the body. Most importantly, yoga can help you feel better, both improving your physical fitness and elevating your mood.
- It won't make you anorexic or ultra slim. It is simply meant to proportionate your body weight in accordance to your height and lifestyle.
- Yoga is free from side effects.
- Yoga directly influences the metabolism of body by acting upon several hormonal secretions in the body.
- Apart from weight reduction, yoga also offers incentives in achieving a better muscle tone and vitality.
- Most weight loss diets and pills are harmful in some way or the other and only bring temporary results. For long term weight loss one needs to explore the root cause and make changes in one’s lifestyle. Yoga offers this opportunity.
Types of Yoga That Will Help Lose Weight:
The type of yoga one needs to do is called vinyasa or flow yoga. This style of yoga is based on the performance of a series of poses called sun salutations. Vinyasa includes many popular, athletic and sweat-drenched yoga styles. The following are recommended for weight loss:
# Ashtanga:
Ashtanga (also spelled Astanga) means "eight limbs" in Sanskrit, which refers to the eight limbs of yoga laid out in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This system of yoga focuses on synchronizing the breath with a series of different, fairly complicated, postures. The result of doing Ashtanga exercises regularly is a healthy body with a strong and clear mind. It is ideal for home practitioners.
# Power Yoga:
Power Yoga is extremely popular, because it provides a very vigorous cardiovascular workout. It is an Americanized version of traditional Kundalini techniques. It is believed to offer all the fat-burning potential and heart benefits -- of an aerobic workout. While traditional types of yoga are based on breathing techniques paired with static poses, power yoga combines meditative breathing with faster, more active movements.
# Hot Yoga:
Performed in a room set to 105 degrees F (40.55 C), this is excellent for weight loss. Studies do show that this type of yoga does cause temporary weight loss. As one sweats, one loses water weight. Yet this type of weight loss is not permanent, and it doesn’t necessarily burn a lot of fat.
# Hath Yoga:
Regular mat yoga, often called Hatha yoga, does cause some weight loss, over consistent practice of at least one class a day. It can also cause muscles to become more toned and flexible, a desirable benefit. On average, the one-hour yoga class burns about 100 calories. Bikram hatha yoga is the kind of yoga that most athletes and celebrities prefer as it helps to lose weight by burning lots of calories if you do the exercises at least ten times a month, on a regular basis. It is a blend of calmer yoga exercises with a complete cardiovascular, aerobic and fat-burning workout. It helps lower your stress levels and build self control, patience and concentration.
