hey girls

i need something new in my exercise routine. until now ive just been walking. my asthma stops me from doing most of the aerobic workouts, i was wondering how effective yoga is for weight loss? i know it improves balance, strength and flexibility, but does it burn calories?

It doesn't really burn a ton of calories, maybe the fast paced kind burns some.

What I read it does is some poses (downward dog, some others) help stimulate the thyroid which in turn can help lose weight.

It also helps relax you, which can help manage emotional and stress eating!

Sarah Ivanhoe's Yoga Makeover is a nice DVD with 5 20 minute workouts (only $6 on deepdiscountdvd), one workout is called Yoga for Weightloss.

I also don't think it is generally considered a big calorie burner, but it is recommended for stress reduction. In addition to helping rein in stress eating, reducing stress can reduce cortisol levels which may help you lose visceral fat (the dangerous kind of belly fat) over the long run.

I do Kundalini Yoga. Right now I have 2 videos I alternate between. I work up a sweat during some of them so I figure they must be burning some calories but I'm not sure it's very many. If what they say about the poses and the breath of fire (a type of breathing used in some poses, I'm not sure if it will affect your asthma but you could always just do regular breathing instead) then they are suppose to help you burn calories faster. I'm not sure if it's true or not but I do enjoy it and it's helped me a lot with stress and endurance.

Kundalini Yoga is the first kind of yoga I've ever done and from what I've heard from people who've done Hatha yoga (the kind you see the most) it's a little strange but like I said, I think it's great. I've become a lot more flexible since I've started also.

The 2 dvd's I use are -

Fat Free Yoga

Ultimate Stretch Yoga Workout

Yoga can absolutely burn calories, depending on what you do. The poses are great for building strength, and there are a lot of cardio yoga flows out there. I did four yoga routines this week from Exercise TV, wearing my heart rate monitor.

Yoga On Edge, Sunset - 27 mins, 53 cals. This one is mellow and the intent is to destress before bed.
Yoga Fitness Plus w/ Elise Gulan - 45 mins, 310 cals. Fast paced, hard as heck, max heart rate during sequence 186.
Thighs & Buns Yoga w/ Tom Morley - 20 mins, 150 cals. Again, fast paced, targets the thighs & buns obviously, max heart rate during sequence 173.
Abs Yoga w/ Tom Morley - 10 mins, 75 cals. Ab exercises never raise my heart rate much.

I've done others as well, some fast paced, some not so much. If you have On Demand from your cable provider check out the yoga section on Exercise TV.

hmmm. i did some reading and they said that even though yoga and pilates dont burn tones of calories, they help build lean muscle which increases resting metabolism. maybe ill give it a shot!

I am not sure about the calorie burn but I know I like it lol I guess it would be good to know because maybe I would focus a bit more on it.

LOL Wow at first I was surprised to read here that Yoga doesn't burn many calories, because when I do the P90X yoga video (which is the only yoga I have experience with), I'm sweating my butt off and my HR is way up!

I found this: http://www.elysiumyoga.com/cals.html

It says the Vinyasa yoga (which is what a large part of the one I do consists of) burns 445 calories per hour.

So maybe you'd like to check that one out. It's FAR from relaxing! But I feel great afterward.

I don't know if I lost weight doing yoga (when I was doing it a few years ago), but I know that I felt a lot leaner than I do now. I weighed a few pounds more but it seems like I was leaner through the middle. I really liked the way it made me feel.

Bikram Yoga! The only type of yoga that I will do. You sweat a TON since you are in a heated room. I bought his book and it explains the benefits of his yoga - one being to improve breathing and decrease the symptoms and amount of attacks caused by asthma. Some others are weight loss, improve flexibility, stamina, etc. I believe an amazing amount of cals are burnt after a 90 min class of Bikram Yoga. I sure feel like there are. I have been doing this for almost a month and I have noticed great changes in my body - I think I look slimmer.

I've heard that hot yoga is great for weight loss, something about increased metabolism. I'm giving it a try for the first time this week as well! Here's hoping we'll find success!

I might try some.

I think some of the best things yoga does for weight loss are:

Really builds a good relationship with your body. If you have a tendency to hate your body, it really helps you see your body as a friend, a good thing.

Helps a lot with the mental battle with overeating. Mindfulness and body awareness are great assets. Also, coping better with stress is always a good thing for emotional eaters.

Isn't there a biggest loser yoga for weight loss dvd?

Yes, there is....I have it. It's not really yoga, imo, but a fat burning workout that uses yoga poses. There's no focus on the mental aspect of yoga at all (which is an important aspect of "real" yoga). I enjoy the workout though and it's helping me to develop the strength to do poses like downward dog. I'm hoping that when the poses are not so difficult for me, I can move on to "real" yoga and enjoy the experience without the distraction of always falling over. I don't have any idea how many calories it burns, though.