It has been shown that practising yoga on a consistent basis is related with a wide variety of positive effects, both mentally and physically, on one’s health. Research has shown that practising yoga may benefit your health in a variety of ways, including reducing the effects of chronic pain and boosting your mood.
Many people have been interested in yoga as a possible method for weight loss because it is a distinctive kind of physical activity that challenges both the body and the mind. However, what precisely does the research conclude?
Is it true that practising yoga might help you lose weight and get rid of those extra pounds? And if that’s the case, are there particular styles of yoga that are more effective than others when it comes to weight loss?
Weight loss with practising yoga?
To date, the majority of research has demonstrated positive findings, particularly when it comes to individuals who are overweight or obese. A number of different studies have investigated the effects of yoga on body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference, and so far, the majority of the findings have been positive.
It is essential to note that in the majority of studies involving yoga and weight loss, the participants’ diets and calorie intakes were not altered in any way. This is an important point to keep in mind.
In addition to aiding in weight loss, regular participation in a yoga programme has been shown in research to help improve a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is a measurement that determines the ratio of a person’s lean mass to their total body fat; a BMI of 25 or higher indicates that the person is overweight. One research concluded that participants’ body mass indexes decreased by approximately 2 points during the course of a 15-day high-intensity yoga intervention. This finding was based on the participants’ average reduction in BMI.
The many benefits of yoga for slimming down
Researchers have identified a variety of mechanisms that may be responsible for the beneficial impact that yoga has on weight loss. According to the findings of many research, there are multiple ways in which practicing yoga may assist you in reducing your body weight. These include a higher daily energy expenditure as well as a longer average intervention time.
Increase your calorie expenditure
One of the reasons people have been shown to lose weight with yoga — even in the absence of dietary intervention — is because higher-intensity forms of yoga have been shown to increase the number of calories your body burns off in a day. This, in turn, helps improve your ability to lose weight. Another reason people have been shown to lose weight with yoga is because yoga has been shown to increase the number of calories your body burns off in a day.
Yoga performed at moderate to high intensity increased participants’ energy expenditure significantly when compared to baseline levels. This led the researchers to the conclusion that more strenuous forms of yoga can be an effective tool for weight loss and weight management.
Cut back on the calories you consume
Research also shows that practising yoga may assist to lower your daily calorie intake, which, when combined with an increase in the amount of energy that you burn, can help to further maximise the weight reduction effects of yoga.
It is true that participants lost more weight in studies where the researchers restricted the number of calories they consumed each day; however, a number of different studies have also demonstrated positive effects of yoga on weight loss even when they did not include any kind of dietary intervention; research suggests that this may be due to both psychological and physiological factors.
It’s possible that yoga will keep you active for a longer period of time than other types of exercise.
People who participated in yoga were significantly more likely to continue practising the activity in the months and years following the intervention, which resulted in significantly more weight loss on average than those who participated in other forms of exercise such as cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting.
Many of us have busy lives, which, at times, can make it more difficult to get to the gym. In fact, this is one of the most common reasons why individuals fall out of their routines at the gym. On the other hand, if you have a fundamental understanding of yoga, you don’t necessarily need to attend a class every time in order to get a good exercise. This, in turn, can boost adherence, particularly in situations in which you just do not have the time to be able to go to the gym.
Improve your body’s overall composition
In addition to assisting in the reduction of extra body fat, regular adherence to a yoga programme may also be shown in study to help enhance the amount of muscle mass one possesses.
In addition to improving your body composition, increasing the amount of lean mass that you have on your body helps to raise your metabolism. This is because your body takes more energy to maintain muscle mass in contrast to maintaining body fat.
Having a higher percentage of lean body mass ultimately implies that you will burn off more calories each day, which, when combined with a balanced diet, will allow you to make the most of your ability to lose weight.
Which styles of yoga are most effective for reducing body fat?
Individuals who are overweight or obese have been proven to benefit from participating in one or more of the several versions of yoga that have been demonstrated to aid in weight loss.
The researchers, discovered substantial impacts in experiments that used a variety of yoga practices, and they came to the conclusion that the following yoga practices may be useful for weight loss:
- Silver Yoga
- Hatha Yoga
- Restorative Yoga
- Yogasana Yoga
- Bikram Yoga
- Vinyasa Yoga
In terms of weight loss, other styles of yoga may also be successful; but, in general, it seems that the styles that include a greater degree of intensity provide the greatest number of health benefits.
How often should you practise yoga to see results in your weight reduction efforts?
If you want to be in better shape and reduce weight, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how often you should do yoga. The amount of physical activity that participants did in yoga research that were concerned with their weight ranged anywhere from once to seven times per week.
The good benefits on weight reduction can be due to a number of different variables. These factors include an increased energy expenditure, a lower calorie intake, better body composition, and a longer adherence duration.
There are a variety of yoga practises that have been demonstrated to be beneficial for weight reduction; however, in general, it seems that the more strenuous yoga practises are the most helpful. When it comes to the number of workouts that should be performed each week to see positive effects, research says that anywhere between three and four sessions that last for sixty minutes each should be sufficient for most individuals.
