Yes -yoga can help you lose weight - but not on its own!
As much as I love to tout yoga's benefits, I dislike hyperbole! I believe yoga poses can indeed help you lose weight. However, the other day I was outraged when I came across an article that claimed,
"If the party next month is making you whine and cringe because you cannot fit into a pretty black dress, here is your best friend in disguise, that is, yoga...It cannot only help you lose weight almost magically but also make you feel good about your body. Find below yoga exercises that will help you lose weight like the swirl of a magic wand."
Yoga can help you lose weight "like the swirl of a magic wand?"
Really? Not quite!
Granted yoga poses such as the shoulder stand and the plough do stimulate the thyroid and pituitary glands which regulate your metabolism-accelerating it if it has been too slow and slowing it down if it has been too fast. Also poses such as the side bends and the cobra can help you trim and firm up the areas around your abdominal core that tend to get flabby and fatty as the years pass by.
But, you cannot do yoga poses in a vacuum!
If you practice the slower type of gentle yoga that I present in this blog and my book, you can lose weight if you also engage in other healthy practices. I have been able to maintain my college weight and physique because I combine a gentle slow yoga practice with daily aerobics (jumping on a mini-trampoline while pumping 3-pound weights) and healthy eating that is centered around whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, oats), lots of greens and colorful veggies and salads, fish, and no dairy, red meat, or poultry and a minimal intake of sugar and processed foods.
Unfortunately, I have seen a number of people who have practiced yoga for years, but who are still overweight because they haven't changed their eating habits. I indulge once in a while in some sweet treats or other foods that are for taste only - but it is once in a while.
In my book, Yoga at Home: Gain Energy, Flexibility, and Serenity in 20-30 Minutes a Day, I share a couple of amazing weight loss stories of individuals several hundred pounds each. Yoga was just one part of these individuals' life style changes, not the only one! They also engaged in regular fast-paced aerobic exercise and changed their eating habits.
I love what Timothy McCall, MD says in his book, Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing, "Although people somtimes don't realize it, proper diet is an integral part of yoga."
McCall also explains that "From a yogic perspective, you are not just what you eat but how you eat. Yoga encourages you to be aware of every bite you put in your mouth, oticing its taste, texture, and temperature. Yogis suggest you think about where your food came from and feel gratitude toward those who grew it and prepared it."
McCall adds that it is important to make eating a form of meditation. When you do this, you will savor your food more, eat less, and then lose weight.
So can you lose weight with yoga - yes indeed! Especially if you practice daily. But, it's not a magic wand that you can wave over your body and have the pounds melt away without out combining other healthy practices to create an overall healthy lifestyle!
Yours for combining gentle yoga with an overall healthy lifestyle to lose or maintain your weight,
Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginner's At Home Yoga Coach