Can Yoga Help Lose Weight?
The relationship between yoga and weight loss can sound weird at first.
Yoga includes different practices and it has originated in ancient India. It uses meditation and inspires self-love. Yoga seeks inner tranquility against the outer world of turbulence. It is believed to positively impact the mind, the soul and body.
Although yoga is not as fast-paced as many of the vigorous exercises that are used for weight loss, many people claim that yoga can actually help in weight loss.
Numerous yoga instructors and students claim that yoga has helped them lose the extra weight safely and steadily. It is even claimed that those who practice yoga regularly tend to put on less weight as they age compared to those who don’t practice yoga.
Weight loss depends on the balance between the food intake and the energy expenditure. You need to consume less food than the calories you burn in order to lose weight.
However, yoga can help with fitness, but is not a traditional way of losing weight. It helps you lose weight through affecting your mind, body and soul. If your mind is always in an over-reactive and an unbalanced state, weight loss will be very hard to achieve. Yoga will create a harmony that impacts your mental state, your emotions and your body.
Below are three ways yoga can lead to weight loss.
Yoga fights stress
When you step on the mat and surrender to the yoga poses and controlled breathing, you begin to enjoy relaxation.
Yoga changes the way you live and the way you think. You learn how to be in charge once again after you were controlled by anxiety and stress.
Since stress can cause weight gain due to the elevation of cortisol which in turn stimulates fat storage, fighting stress can, therefore, lead to smooth weight loss. There are even some yoga poses that aim at stretching the abs and other parts of the body.
Self-love
Many people who tend to lose weight see themselves as their worst enemy.
They are mad at themselves for craving sweets and beat themselves up for not progressing fast enough. There is usually an emotional aspect to obesity. Yoga cultivates self-love.
You learn how to love yourself more and to be gentle with it. The resulting harmony positively influences your daily habits further and you learn to give yourself a pat on the back. Yoga can boost your self-esteem and you will learn to enjoy life more from it.
Tune into your body
Yoga is a spiritual practice that makes you tune into your body. You learn more about your body needs and about any changes in your body.
Yoga can teach you, through meditation, how to pay attention to your body and how to listen to it. You are one with your body and you are more supportive of it.
Why start yoga
Yoga should become a part of your lifestyle if you wish to enjoy its benefits. Make a point to practice yoga regularly. There are many yoga styles, some are vigorous and some are rather slow. Choose a yoga style you feel comfortable with.
Try to search for an inspiring yoga instructor who can instill the yoga principles in your soul and who is creative enough to enrich your experience of yoga.
The results of yoga become clear soon after you get started. Whatever the yoga style you choose and whatever your mastery level is, you will definitely benefit from your yoga practice.
Yoga does not need a certain age to start. It is always the right time once you decide it is. Yoga will be helpful no matter what your age is. In fact, yoga was found to help post-menopausal women to lose belly fat, that is otherwise very stubborn to lose.
The yoga experience over the mat is actually worth trying. In today’s hectic lives where so much is going on, our minds tend to be over-reactive.
Yoga is the solution to bring a state of stillness once again to ourselves. Yoga will train you to relax, to feel your body needs and to truly love your body. Yoga is the essential practice of caring for yourself and your health. Its impact is far more than weight loss.