Yoga, the ancient Indian practice, is a well-known activity for improving your spiritual, physical, and mental health. It is several thousand years old and is the practice of harmonizing the mind with your body. Yoga involves the use of meditation, asanas or poses, and breathing exercises to harness your true inner power.
It is the go-to activity for stress elimination and teaches you how to relax, despite living in a hectic world. With regular yoga practice, you can improve your strength and flexibility while helping you deal with anxiety simultaneously.
Despite all the knowledge about yoga, several people have one common question – is it good for weight loss. When you think about shedding those extra pounds, you always imagine that your body will be full of sweat at the end of the activity.
It is understandable why people tend to wonder about the potential of yoga when it comes to weight loss. Do the poses, along with the various breathing exercises you learn, help you lose weight, or are they a placebo effect?
Even though this discipline looks and feels slow, there is a lot more than what meets the eye. For starters, with the right Yoga training program, you can lose weight. A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) backed this claim. Researchers discovered that this ancient discipline was responsible for promoting weight loss among the participants.
If you want to get into the world of Yoga, you need to understand how yoga can help you shed those extra pounds. Does the philosophy and awareness that this discipline brings play an essential role, or is it due to the poses?
Let’s jump in and discover why Yoga training program will aid in weight loss:
What types of yoga are effective in losing weight?
You need to burn a greater number of calories than what you consume to experience weight loss. There are a variety of Yoga training programs that help you eliminate the extra pounds from your body. For example, power, Ashtanga, and Vinyasa yoga tend to be quite physical compared to the other variants. Also, the practitioners tend to teach these disciplines in heated environments to increase your heart rate and burn more calories.
How does yoga help with weight loss?
When you practice yoga regularly, it helps with weight loss in the following ways:
Improves sleep
Yoga continues to be popular among the public because of its potential to improve the quality of sleep. When you practice this discipline regularly, you will start to notice how easy it is to get a good night’s sleep every day. The moment you hit the sack, it will only take a couple of minutes to pass out.
A study published in 2018 showed how the quality of sleep impacts the ability of the participants to lose weight. By correlating yoga with how it improves your sleep, the chances of shedding the extra pounds and achieving your health goals become a reality.
Increase in mindfulness
How does being aware of yourself and your needs help eliminate the extra belly fat in your body? Yoga aids in the development of mindfulness due to various types of activities in this discipline.
Once you become aware, you start to pay closer attention to the food you eat every day. As your mind become stronger, the chances of avoiding comfort eating and consuming unhealthy options start to increase significantly. Also, when you eat, you will chew your food slowly, which brings down consumption.
As you have a greater awareness of your body, you will know when you are feeling full. As a result, you will avoid overeating or binge-eating. On top of that, you will start to notice that you prefer to eat unprocessed and fresh foods, which seem more appetizing.
How often do you need to practice yoga to observe weight loss?
The key to losing weight is to practice as much yoga as possible every week. On average, you should do it at least three times, with each session lasting a minimum of an hour. However, you should avoid stressing out your body if you are unable to handle the intensity.
In a Yoga training program, you should start slowly before increasing the physicality of the activity over time. As a result, you won’t face injuries, and your body will have greater flexibility and strength.
Even if you don’t have a lot of time in your hands, you must make it a point to practice yoga frequently to observe weight loss. There are several poses which you can do inside a small space. Also, make sure you don’t practice Yoga right after you eat a heavy meal.
The yoga training program is a powerful and great discipline you can learn, which will help you lose weight while improving your general well-being simultaneously!