So many people ask me this question every single day NOW even more when World is celebrating Yoga Day on 21st of this Month.
If You are absolutely unbiased I have the Correct answer, remember the fact that you have been overweight ever since you started Yoga, keeping that experience in mind here is what I have to say. In last 10 years of my weight loss practice at NidSun, I have seen many success and failures of yoga therapy. Those of you who have lost weight with yoga have been given some kind of ‘yoyo’ diets like fruit diet or vegetable diet along with yoga which was the main reason for that weight loss and not yoga alone, this is the ugly truth and you should face it. If you are starting yoga as a sole way to lose weight you will most likely be BIG disappointment like I faced, few years ago.
When starting yoga as exercise, you should start with light beginners’ yoga classes such as Hatha yoga. Doing this type of exercise will improve flexibility and a bit of muscle toning. You may see some improvement in your body shape as yoga lengthens the skeletal muscles and increases the tone of those muscles.
Yoga on the other hand has some drawbacks such as it will never increase your cardiovascular fitness as it is not an aerobic exercise.It won’t increase your muscle mass and hence will not increase your resting metabolism. Power yoga and some advanced yoga will help in some muscle build up but you need years of practice to start advance levels of yoga. If you are planning for a short cut as lot of people do; jumping straight to the advance techniques, you might as well land into some serious problems like spine injuries or soft tissue injuries making you immobile and further increase your weight.
The best way to lose weight via exercise is to combine aerobic exercises like brisk walk, cycling, spinning, aerobics, stairs, jogging, running, skipping etc.( according to your fitness levels) also add some strength training along with your aerobic exercise for best results. You can combine yoga as adjuvant fitness routine to increase flexibility, better muscle coordination and breathing.
And please, if you have any medical problem, ask your doctor before starting workouts. And as always Team NidSun is always there to help you out with a great Body of Your Dreams
Move your body to good health 🙂