Which Type of Yoga Is Best for Weight Loss?

In our quest to become the best version of ourselves, we often look to yoga for answers. As a practice that centers on the physical, spiritual, and mental aspects of development, it can go a long way to helping us fulfill our personal goals.

Yoga, particularly its more active poses, can also contribute to weight loss. You may discover that it gives you a level of awareness that factors vitally into any calorie-burning journey. With that said, let’s take a look at the best yoga forms for achieving a healthy weight while also following a program like Riselean.

Yoga for Burning Calories

While the nature of yoga is aerobic, certain forms of it are more physical than others and can give you a complete sweat-inducing workout. Some intense yoga styles are Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Power yoga. They keep you moving constantly, which helps you shed all those extra pounds.

What makes these three yoga forms excellent is their ability to keep you from gaining weight. However, for optimal results, they must also be integrated with proper eating habits, sufficient sleep, and a healthy lifestyle overall.

When equilibrium is achieved between all these important aspects, that’s when you may see a holistic outcome that not only leads to a healthy weight but also improved metabolism and well-developed muscles.

Another awesome type of weight-loss yoga is Restorative yoga, which has proven itself in the past to be a helpful weight-loss tool for overweight women. It specifically targets fat that gathers in the abdomen. What makes this form different from the other three is that it tends to delve less on the physical and more on the mental and spiritual state of the practitioner.

The fact that there’s a less physical yoga discipline for weight loss is promising for those who aren’t able to engage in the more vigorous forms. It gives them the chance to work themselves into a physical state wherein they’d be able to participate correctly in such practices. 

How Frequently Should You Do Yoga to Lose Weight?

It’s not just the type of yoga you practice that shapes your weight loss journey but also how frequently you engage in it. It’s recommended that you do an hour-long intense yoga session for at least thrice a week. You can even go up to five times a week once your body can handle it. 

On some days, it’s important to mix things up with gentle and relaxing poses to help the body recover. For this, you can tap into some really great options like Yin, Hatha, and Restorative yoga.

The frequency of yoga sessions is different for beginners. If you’re just fresh off the starting line, it’s important to start slowly and work yourself gradually towards doing yoga five or six days a week, particularly if you’re performing difficult poses. In this way, you can build up the strength and flexibility needed to help prevent injuries.

If your schedule keeps you from doing consecutive hour-long sessions, then a self-practice session of about 20 minutes should suffice on those days. There should be one full day of rest per week where you don’t take to the mat at all.

As far as yoga for weight loss goes, avoid hopping on the weighing scale each time you complete a session. The amount of water weight you lose during a class can hide your real weight. Instead, you should weigh yourself early in the morning before taking to the mat. 

Poses to Do at Home That Can Help You Lose Weight

Our inability to regularly attend hot yoga classes at the studio can interfere with our weight loss plans. Since so much about yoga success relies on consistency, we’ve compiled a list of simple and weight-loss-effective poses you can do at home.

1. Plank

We wager you know full well what this pose is. If not, then don’t worry because a bit of research will tell you that it’s not that hard to do. What’s great about this form is that it works your whole body, particularly your arms, legs, and abdomen, helping you shed fat and gain muscle tone in those areas.

2. Sun Salutations

This is another awesome yoga pose for weight loss. You can do more than 30 repetitions of this pose each day for the entire week to lose one pound per week.

3. Boat Pose

This pose can help get rid of stubborn belly fat better than others because it fully engages your stomach muscles and helps reduce stress levels.

Final Thoughts

There are quite a few yoga forms that are great for weight loss, including Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Power yoga. When practicing these forms as a beginner, slowly and gradually work your way towards the more difficult poses so that you can build the necessary strength and flexibility to perform them properly.

Then, integrate Restorative yoga into your weight loss journey to add gentle and relaxing elements to your sessions and speed up your progress. You’ll also want to carve out a spot for this routine in your schedule to benefit from the effects of consistency and stay on track of your goal.