Could Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
Everyone wants to look and feel their best, and for many people that means losing a few extra pounds, especially after the holidays. If you're looking for a healthy way to shed some excess weight, yoga may be the answer you are looking for. Here's what you need to know about how yoga can help you reach your fitness goals.
Yoga is an ancient practice with a wide variety of physical and mental benefits, including improved flexibility, strength, balance, posture, and breathing. But did you know it can also help you lose weight? Regular yoga practice can help boost your metabolism and burn calories more efficiently. This is because yoga combines physical activity with mindful awareness of your body's movements and postures as well as controlled breathing techniques.
In addition to burning calories during a session, regular yoga practice can also keep your metabolism elevated afterwards. Studies have shown that following an intense yoga session, the body continues to burn calories at a higher rate than usual for up to three hours after the session has ended. This phenomenon is known as "afterburn" or "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption" (EPOC), or I believe that is what it is called.
The type of yoga you practice will also affect how many calories you burn in each session. Vinyasa flow classes are great for increasing calorie burn because they involve constantly transitioning between poses while maintaining fluid movement. Other styles such as restorative or yin yoga are slower-paced but still offer significant physical benefits by stretching the muscles and activating core muscles which helps maintain good posture throughout the day—a key factor in calorie burning!
Whether your goal is to lose weight or just get fit overall, yoga practice can be an effective way to reach those goals that you seek to attain! Yoga offers a range of physical benefits including increased flexibility, strength, balance, posture and breathing control, which is my favorite; plus additional metabolic benefits like calorie burning both during and after a session. So why not give it a try? Who knows—it could be exactly the thing that helps you reach your fitness goals!
