Can Yoga Really Help You Lose Weight?

Ok, technically yoga decreases the metabolic rate, which doesn’t sound like what you want if you want to lose weight, but research consistently shows it is wonderful for your health. Research on yoga’s effects on weight is difficult to interpret because of the variety of yoga practices and other factors.  

Yoga is an ancient Indian practice incorporating many elements such as breathing, meditations, and postures. There are also multiple forms and practices of yoga. 

Certain yogas that include body weight components will help build muscle. This extra muscle helps our bodies to burn more calories throughout the day. There are yogas called power or heat yoga that may be beneficial for this. 

Its effect on weight may most likely be due to its effect on other aspects of our health and not a calorie burn from the yoga itself. Weight is affected by many things such as mental health, stress, sleep and diet. Let’s look at these. 

Mental Health and Stress

Yoga has not been shown to affect psychiatric disorders but it does help us handle stress better. Stress increases cortisol in our bodies. Cortisol is a steroid that leads to increased fat around the waist line. So just decreasing that stress decreased the associated stress hormone, cortisol, and thereby decreases fat production around the waist. 

Sleep

Less stress also leads to better sleep. Yoga, as mentioned previously, slows down our metabolic rate and helps to calm us down allowing us to get to sleep better. Studies have shown repeatedly that yoga is a great sleeping aid. So there is a double whammy domino effect here. Yoga directly helps weight by helping us sleep better and indirectly by decreasing our stress! 

Less than 7-8 hours of sleep a night and poor sleep have been shown to increase weight. Poor sleep leads to fatigue which decreases your exercise capability.  Fatigue also increases cravings for carbohydrates and sugars such as pasta and cakes. So yoga decreases those bad food cravings and increases exercise simply by helping you sleep better.

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Diet

Yoga does somehow help us to actually want healthier food options. Some research shows those who regularly practice yoga will reach for the fruit or vegetable option more often than a sugar or carbohydrate high option such as a cookie. 

Conclusion

So while yoga does not always directly affect our weight it does in the overall scheme of things. It helps us live a healthier and happier life no matter our weight. I would suggest incorporating other aerobic or strength training activities into your routine in addition to yoga. Maybe start your mornings with some fast walking and end your day with a beautiful relaxing all-over-body yoga practice!