Yoga is certainly relaxing. Plus, it helps with balance and flexibility. Those are all good things – but what if your goal is to shed a few (or maybe more than a few) pounds of body fat? Can yoga help with weight loss too?
Yoga and Weight Loss: What Does Research Show?
Just crunching the numbers it wouldn’t seem like yoga would help with weight loss. More traditional forms of yoga only burn about 200 calories per hour session. While every bit of activity counts, that’s not a lot of energy expended for the time you spend doing it. On the other hand, power yoga burns between 300 and 400 calories per session.
Despite the fact that you don’t expend as many calories during a yoga session as you do with high-intensity boot camp workouts or other metabolism-boosting workouts, yoga may still give you a “leg up” when it comes to shedding body fat. In a study funded by the National Cancer Institute, researchers looked at the impact of yoga on body weight. They surveyed a group of over 15,000 men and women regarding their exercise habits and their weight between the ages of 45 and 55. In this group of healthy people, yoga seemed to offer weight control benefits. Participants that were carrying a few too many pounds that did yoga lost about 5 pounds while those that didn’t gain an average of 14 pounds over a ten-year period.
How Does Yoga Help with Weight Loss?
Yoga seems to have benefits for weight control, but it may not be related to calories expended. Experts believe the answer may lie in yoga’s ability to increase body awareness. People who practice yoga become more in touch with their bodies and learn to deal with internal sensations like hunger in a healthier way. As a result, they eat more mindfully.
For example, when eating a meal, people who eat mindfully develop a greater awareness of when they’re full and stop eating more quickly as a result. In fact, a study looked at how yoga affected eating habits by asking people questions that measured how “mindfully” they ate. The average BMI (body mass index) was lower in those that practiced yoga. In addition, a lower BMI was associated with higher scores on for mindful eating.
When people eat mindfully, they’re more likely to make healthy dietary choices. You learn to appreciate the taste of whole foods and to be satisfied with smaller amounts of food. That can certainly help with weight control.
The Stress Relief Benefits of Yoga
Yoga is a form of relaxational exercise. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the system that opposes the sympathetic or “flight or flight” nervous system that causes you to feel anxious and “stressed out.” It also increases your heart rate, blood pressure and raises your blood sugar level. The parasympathetic nervous system is often referred to as the “rest and digest” portion of the nervous system because it promotes calmness and relaxation. If you feel anxious or “stressed out”, you’re probably getting too much stimulation from your sympathetic nervous system. Yoga helps to re-establish the balance between the two systems, thereby easing stress and anxiety. Yoga also reduces cortisol, the stress hormone that increases abdominal fat when it’s chronically elevated.
What does this have to do with weight loss and mindful eating? A number of people are stress-eaters that mindlessly munch on comfort snacks to help them feel better. Comfort snacks are usually high in sugar and calories. By relieving stress, yoga may help with weight loss and weight control. Having a high cortisol level not only impacts your waistline – it can damage your health. Yoga is a natural way to lower your cortisol level.
Yoga can also be a complement to a more demanding, calorie-burning fitness routine. It’s a good recovery workout for the day after a high-intensity training session. Plus, yoga helps to stretch the muscles you work during strength-training session. This reduces muscle tightness and the risk of injury. Just as you need a balance between your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, you need balance in your workouts too.
Increase the Calorie Burn
If you want more calorie burn, power yoga is a more invigorating workout that burns more calories and works up a sweat. On the other hand, don’t think every workout has to be a fat-scorching, calorie-burning session. Your body will benefit from some sessions that are more relaxing. Again, it’s all about balance.
Can Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
Yoga can be a part of a successful weight loss program, especially when you alternate it with higher intensity exercise sessions. It’s like yin and yang – they balance each other and help keep you balanced. Yoga can help change your mindset, how you think about food, and help you eat more mindfully. It also relieves stress and even changes the relationship you have with your body. There are lots of reasons to add yoga to your fitness schedule whether you’re trying to lose weight or simply maintain.
References:
Science Daily. “Regular Yoga Practice Is Associated With Mindful Eating”
WebMD. “Yoga for Weight Loss”
Yoga Journal. “Tame Your Stress”
Endocrine Society. “ENDO – Feeling Stressed? Try Yoga”
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