yoga pose for weight loss

Yoga Can Help You Lose 5 Pounds Quickly and Safely!

Category: Blog

Yoga and Weight Loss

Many of us lead busy, active lives, and unfortunately, due to convenience, many of us choose fast and unhealthy food options and don’t make the time to exercise.

This type of lifestyle can lead to fast signs of aging and can affect body weight negatively. However, if you have decided to take action and to take care of yourself, do something about your weight gain and dwindling health – you may be looking for a physical activity that you would find enjoyable.

Yoga is a popular activity that many locals have successfully pursued to improve their physical health, mental health and overall wellness. It offers many health benefits, and has been a successful tool used for weight loss. However, this is not a cardio-intensive activity, so the benefits to your weight loss efforts are more unique.

Yoga Improves Liver Function

One of the primary functions of the liver is to detoxify the blood, and this enhances weight loss in several ways. For example, a healthy liver eliminates unhealthy fats from the body, and it enhances the use of good fats to your benefit. If you are interested in improving your liver function through yoga, there are several great poses that you can use for this purpose, including:

  • Cobra pose
  • Spinal twist
  • Wheel pose

Yoga for Thyroid Health

Your thyroid serves the important function of controlling your metabolism, so you can see how promoting thyroid health would impact weight loss efforts. When you promote ideal thyroid health, you may be able to speed up your metabolism for faster weight loss and easier weight control after you have reached your ideal body weight. Just a few of the many poses that are great for improving thyroid health include:

  • Fish pose
  • Shoulder stand

Yoga For Muscle Strength and Tone

You may have heard that a body with greater muscle tone and mass will burn more fat while at rest than a body with minimal muscle tone and mass. This has been scientifically proven, and this means that a primary goal to accomplish weight loss efforts is to improve muscle tone and strength. Yoga may not be a cardio-intensive activity, but it is great for improving muscle tone. Almost every yoga pose you can do will affect muscle tone and strength. 

Yoga And Your Heart Rate

While yoga generally will not raise your heart rate the way a long jog or a spin session can, it nonetheless can elevate your heart rate for an extended period of time. Most yoga classes are approximately 30 to 60 minutes, and they feature intervals where your heart rate may rise and then lower frequently throughout the session. This is a wonderful way to burn calories without over-stressing the body. 

Yoga is a wonderful physical activity that can leave you feeling relaxed, and it is commonly used as a means for de-stressing. However, it has many total body health benefits as well, including supporting weight loss efforts.

Types of Yoga Practice

You may have noticed that there are many different types of yoga classes. Some yoga is a lot more intense than others. Below are some types of yoga:

  • Kundalini
  • Vinyasa
  • Hatha
  • Bikram
  • Ashtanga
  • Yin flow

You can find a mix of different types of yoga in one class, depending on the studio that you’re practicing at, and the instructor.

Visit here to learn about the different types of yoga practice.

If you feel uncomfortable trying a yoga class because you’ve never done it before, know that there are lots of different options to practice. Some of the simple stretches that you already do might be yoga poses! Check out this beginner’s Yoga Guide.

 

Weight Loss at Bay Wellness Centre

At Bay Wellness Centre, the naturopathic physicians use a holistic approach to determine the best way to lose weight for you. The physician will first work with you to determine the cause of the excess weight (i.e. inflammation and food sensitivities, trauma, improper diet and nutrition) and develop a weight loss plan for you. In the weight loss plan, detoxification will be addressed, as well as nutrition, lifestyle and hormones. Have a look at some more information on addressing digestive health.