Can Yoga Really Boost Weight Loss?

Can yoga help you lose weight? If the media portrayal is correct, yes! More and more celebrities are using yoga to speed up their weight loss and give their diets a boost. Even professional athletes attest to yoga's great results in helping them stay fit, healthy and thin. But is doing yoga to lose weight the right dieting exercise for you?

Three years ago, medical researchers funded by the National Cancer Institute did a study on over 15,000 people. The health and diet research found that yoga can not only help you lose weight, but it can even act as a preventative measure against gaining weight. "Those practicing yoga who were overweight to start with lost about 5 pounds during the same time period those not practicing yoga gained 14 pounds," said one of the researchers (source).

According to another weight loss weight loss study conducted in Adelphi University in 2004, yoga can actually aid in taking off up to 9 calories per minute! Yoga's uniquely effective way of burning calories is made possible through keeping a dynamic rhythmic body movement that is almost the same as the other calorie-burning exercises. . On the average, it takes off about 175 calories (through Hatha Yoga) to 630 calories per hour (through Bikram Yoga). Thus, people do shed off extra pounds through yoga.

Practitioners who believe that yoga can indeed help in weight loss still must be aware that most types of yoga do not burn as many calories as the same time spent on, say, doing aerobics. At most, yoga can be a great supplement to our fitness routine if we really want extreme weight loss.

While yoga does not burn calories as much as other rigorous weight-loss exercise, it can help burn more calories through improving your flexibility and posture. Yoga is also a great way to increase our body's strength and overall balance. Brisk walking, for instance, is enhanced by yoga through giving the practitioner more flexibility. The more flexible he is, the stronger he becomes and the more upright his posture is. This then leads to longer and faster strides and ultimately more calories burned.

Another benefit of yoga is its aid in stimulating the thyroid gland. The Yogic philosophy professes that doing certain yogic poses regularly balances the functions of the thyroid, and assists in weight loss. Also, emotional eaters can take comfort from the fact that the breathing techniques offered by yoga will help them calm their minds and reduce stress and anxiety. Bingeing can therefore be avoided.

All in all, yoga alone cannot be touted as the ultimate weight loss program there is today. But it can definitely help us burn more calories if done together with other cardiovascular exercises.