Yoga can be an effective way to reach and maintain ideal weight. The different styles of yoga, ranging from gentle to vigorous, offer workouts that boost flexibility, strength and endurance. Yoga's mind-body practice may promote mindful eating and body awareness. Vigorous yoga workouts may also increase calorie-burning. One study reports that vigorous vinyasa flow-style yoga may burn up to 540 calories an hour.
Yoga Maintains Healthy Weight
A study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine reports that gentle hatha yoga practice can help maintain healthy weight and prevent weight gain in middle-aged adults. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle surveyed 15,550 middle-aged adults. The researchers found that healthy weight subjects who practiced yoga for more than four years had a 3 pound lower weight gain than participants who didn't practice yoga. Overweight yoga practitioners had a 19 pound lower weight gain. During the 10-year period, overweight yoga practitioners had lost an average of 5 pounds compared to non-yoga participants who gained 13 pounds.
Yoga Boosts Calorie-Burning
Research published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests that vigorous vinyasa flow-style yoga is an efficient cardiovascular workout that can burn up to 540 calories an hour. Researchers from Adelphi University in New York administered a vinyasa flow-style yoga video to 13 advanced yoga practitioners. The subjects were familiar with the video's yoga postures. The researchers found that the participants had an average 77-percent increase in heart rate and average 7 kcal/min caloric expenditure.
Yoga Mindful Eating
A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that yoga promotes mindful eating and increased body awareness and hunger sensitivity. Researchers at he Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle administered a Mindful Eating Questionnaire to 303 middle-aged women. The researchers found that only the participants who practiced yoga ate mindfully, stopped eating once sated and had significantly lower BMIs--body mass index.
Yoga Lowers Obesity Risk
A study published in eCAM--Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine--suggests that vinyasa flow-style yoga practice improves healthy exercise habits and reduces the risk of obesity and diabetes. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine administered either vinyasa flow style yoga twice weekly or educational materials every two weeks to 23 overweight adults at risk for diabetes. The researchers found that the yoga participants had reduced BMIs, blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol levels, compared to the non-yoga group. The yoga group also established healthy exercise habits.
Yoga Improves Fitness
A study sponsored by the American Council on Exercise reports that gentle hatha yoga practice improves fitness. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, administered either a gentle hatha yoga class three days weekly or no exercise to 34 sedentary women. The researchers found that the yoga participants had significantly improved flexibility, strength, endurance and balance, compared to the non-yoga participants.
References
- Kristal AR et al. Yoga practice is associated with attenuated weight gain in healthy, middle-aged men and women. Altern Ther Health Med. 2005 Jul-Aug;11(4):28-33.
- Otto RM, Carroll J et al. The metabolic requirements of vinyasa yoga. Med Sci Sport Exer 2004 May;35(5)Suppl1:S155
- Framson C, Kristal AR et al. Development and Validation of the Mindful Eating Questionnaire. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2009; 109 (8): 1439.
- Yang K et al. Utilization of 3-month Yoga Program for Adults at High Risk for Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Study. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009 Aug 18.
- Anders M. ACE. Yoga Study: Does Yoga Really Do the Body Good? ACE FitnessMatters.
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