Yoga is excellent for weight loss at a sensible effective level. If you try and lose weight too quickly you will end up burning muscle and much of what you thought you had lost will be water. In both cases the weight will simply return quite quickly. To lose 1lb a week, every day you should burn around 500 calories more than you eat. If this is your only form of exercise a quick 20 minute burst is not going to do it for you unless you are very overweight.
Calorie burn varies with many factors but weight makes a big difference so check our pages for calories burned by weight and type of yoga. If you don’t have the time needed then our 30 Day Yoga Challenge project will be the answer. With a ramped up cardio burst to begin, when you start your yoga your metabolism will already be burning bright!
To lose 1lb a week, on an average day you should burn around 500 calories more than you eat. You cannot target specific areas, eg belly fat. You can tone muscle but fat/weight loss means overall body weight reduction. To burn this with Hatha Yoga will take around 2 hours 20 minutes ever day for a week. Ashtanga or Power Yoga would need around 1 hour 30 minutes daily. For most of this just isn’t practical. Hot Yoga or Bikram Yoga fare a bit better needing just over an hour but the best choice is Vinyasa Yoga or Yoga Flow at a little less than an hour.
Those figures are average for all weights. Calorie burn varies with many factors but weight makes a big difference so check below for calories burned by weight. The calories below are for an middle of the road yoga class. For more accuracy choose your yoga type here.
Calories Burned in 1 hour
Calories Burned in 40 minutes
Calories Burned in 40 minutes
Calories Burned in 45 minutes
Calories Burned in 1 hour 30 mins
Calories Burned in 2 hours
