Yoga for weight loss, who says it is difficult?

Yoga is a physical activity that focuses on strength, flexibility and breathing. When compared to general sports such as running or playing basketball, yoga does not seem too strenuous. There don't seem to be many tiring movements when doing yoga. If so, choosing yoga for weight loss is impossible? Eits, wait a minute. Yoga for weight loss is said to be effective, you know, based on research.

Benefits of yoga for weight loss

Indeed yoga seems like a light exercise. It is so light, yoga to lose weight seems almost impossible. In fact, yoga can still help you lose weight based on the results of a study in the Journal of Clinical & Diagnostic Research in 2016. This study proves that regular yoga practice is effective in controlling the obesity condition of men who live in cities, aka urbanites.

The research in this journal involved 80 obese adult men. With 40 people doing yoga regularly for 3 months, while the remaining 40 people do free physical activities other than yoga.

For 3 months yoga practice 5 times a week with a duration of each exercise is 90 minutes. The two groups followed the same diet recommended by the researchers.

The result, from this, it can be seen that the percent of fat experienced a greater decrease in the group who did yoga regularly compared to other groups. Losing weight of fat in the waist and upper arms also occurs more frequently in people who regularly do yoga.

Not only that, waist circumference and hip circumference decreased more in the group doing regular yoga. This reduction in fat weight and overall body circumference leads to weight loss.

How can yoga lose weight?

1. Yoga influences how you choose to eat

Beth A. Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Kinesiology in Minneapolis, United States said that yoga can lose weight, but not like the way in general.

Usually, weight loss occurs when more physical activity is carried out than the calories that are entered. Yoga does not directly affect this way.

Doing yoga exercises burns fewer calories than regular exercises such as running or swimming. However, yoga can increase their focus and awareness of their bodies. So, people will pay more attention to what they eat. As a result, many healthy foods are chosen and you can lose weight.

Yoga can also reduce stress. Stress is one of the triggers for a person to overeat. With yoga, your psychological condition will also get better so you don't go crazy because of your emotions.

2. Yoga increases the body's metabolism

In theory, yoga is not a high-intensity physical activity. However, you should remember that yoga classes usually last 75-90 minutes. Although the movements are slow, the practice is long and continuous.

This condition also makes the muscles work hard all the time, the muscles contract and relax over and over again. By doing this yoga activity regularly 4-5 times a week, the body's metabolism will increase. Including the ability to burn calories.

Over time you can see changes in body shape and even weight loss by doing yoga regularly.

Tips to lose weight quickly with yoga

Source: LiveStrong

If your goal is to lose weight, you should combine your yoga practice with other exercises that can increase your heart rate even more. For example running, aerobics, cycling, and others. This helps to increase more calories burned in a faster time.

In addition, the main key to success in losing weight is maintaining a balance of calories in and calories out. Don't forget to set a healthy diet so that you don't overdo the calories.