Restoritive Yoga for Weight Loss
Restorative Yoga is covered in the Harvard Guide to Yoga and is typically a form of yoga less intense than ashtangha or others.
Classes that last 90 minutes or longer and burn 300 to 500 calories per style are a good choice for those who want to use yoga for weight loss. As part of a regular exercise routine yoga can help you lose weight, but it is not the best method.
While yoga can help you lose weight, don’t rely solely on it to achieve your goals. Regular exercise and a concentrated calorie deficit are key to healthy weight loss, and yoga can play a role. A deeper awareness of the physical and mental state generated by mindfulness and greater intuition of your own body are two key factors in weight loss – whether you eat a healthy diet or know when to retire to prevent too much cortisol in your body, which can be a serious disadvantage to weight loss, says yoga teacher Alexandra Baldi, founder of Compass Chelsea.
By lowering cortisol levels and consistent yoga practice, women can lose body fat. Research shows that a relaxing yin yoga session within 12 weeks causes the same weight loss as any other form of yoga. It was also found that those who practiced restorative yoga lost more weight, especially subcutaneous fats, than those who did stretching exercises.
Participants in a yoga class that was restorative continued to lose fat during a maintenance period under direct supervision. In 2013, a review of studies found that yoga is a promising way to assist weight loss and maintenance behavioural changes by burning calories, increasing mindfulness and reducing stress.
For example, a study published in 2013 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine showed that a 10-day yoga program in obese men led to weight loss and a reduced risk of heart disease. The men in the study had a BMI of 26 or more and lost an average of 19 kilograms of weight.
A study from 2013 that examined the effects of restorative yoga on overweight women found that those who participated in a 48-week yoga program lost more weight over a six-month period than those who participated in a stretching program but did not do yoga. Those who participated in a restorative yoga routine lost over 2.5 times as much subcutaneous fat as those who did a routine of simple stretching exercises. The yoga participants lost 3.4 square centimetres of fat from the skin, compared to 6 square centimetres in the group that only participated in the stretching program.
In a study published in the Journal of Alternative Medicine last year, obese men who practiced yoga and breathing exercises lost average of 4 pounds in 10 days. In another study funded by the National Institutes of Health, women who practiced restorative yoga and did yoga poses held on the floor for long periods supported by blankets or props burned twice as much body fat as those who stretched for the same period only. Yoga also helped yoga practitioners lose 2.5 times the subcutaneous fat on the skin (measured with calipers) and, in some cases, the fat measured with abdominal scanners.
It doesn’t matter what kind of yoga you do as long as you reduce stress while you do it. Increasing mindfulness on the mat makes it easier to keep in tune with the rest of the day which translates into something as simple as recognizing when the body is asking for something to go or eat when you’re hungry. While some might think that the right yoga practice for weight loss is an aerobic style such as ashtanga, slow flowing vinyasa or Flow, recent studies have shown that gentle forms of yoga, such as restorative yoga can help people lose significant weight.
Restorative yoga is often touted for its ability to relieve stress, help people cure illnesses, and increase flexibility. Researchers have found it can help people lose significant amounts of weight. Restorative yoga has been shown to help reduce stress, cure people of all forms of health problems and become more flexible.
Yoga, an Indian form of mind-body rejuvenation, is an ancient treatment to strengthen a healthy body and stress-free mind. It has significant benefits for people who are obese, want to lose weight and people who just want to relax. Certain poses and asanas are the “killer app” for weight loss with benefits that go beyond just burning calories and strengthening muscles, says Nicole Persley, a yoga instructor at Inner Peace in Lake Worth, Florida.
Yoga expert Jill Miller uses this technique to modify standard yoga poses with special props. Your yoga weight loss kit is a routine that burns more calories and fat while still enjoying the benefits of yoga. Whether you’re striking a pose or moving through vinyasa or power yoga, it’s crucial to pay attention to your body, says fitness trainer Patricia Moreno, founder of Intensati and creator of several weight loss DVDs (yoga fusion).
Restorative Yoga is not a stretching class where the ultimate goal is to be able to touch the toes for 10 sessions. A 2013 study of the University of California, San Diego showed that restorative yoga can help obese women lose fat. The study compared restorative yoga for 48 weeks to an active stretching regime and found that women who practiced yoga lost subcutaneous fats.
One explanation for this difference could be that restorative yoga lowers cortisol levels which rise during stress periods and are known to increase abdominal fat. Unlike more intense forms of ancient practices, restorative yoga does not have fluid body movements or challenging postures. Due to its passive nature, it can be beneficial for those who want to start a training program but cannot because of lack of motivation or stamina, or because their body weight does not allow for rigorous training.
If you’re doing weight-loss yoga, Shah recommends at least three to four one-hour sessions a week. Since yoga is considered a low-to-medium-intensity sport, it complies with current physical activity guidelines for Americans who recommend a weekly exercise of at least 150 minutes to 2.5 hours of low-to-medium intensity. You won’t experience the effects of overtraining when you do yoga six to seven days a week as part of a weight loss program, but you can still incorporate gentle restorative yoga after a Vinyasa or Bikram class to reset your body.