Does Yoga Help with Weight Loss?

This is the most common question I get asked as a yoga teacher, and the hardest one to answer. Because weight loss depends on so many other factors that are unique to the individual. But the simplest answer is, no. Yoga isn’t a weight loss program, but it can support your goal to improve overall well-being and quality of life. Those who practice consistently, find that over the years they start to make better choices with respect to their health- for example eating better or sleeping on time. So, this is what I tell anyone who asks me about if practicing yoga will help them lose weight:

(1)   Eat a balanced, healthy diet- using local, fresh ingredients. Make sure whatever dietary changes you make blend seamlessly into your daily routine and can be sustained for a long time.

(2)   Get some cardio vascular activity daily – even if you start with just 30 mins. It could be a walk, running, or cycling.

(3)   Practice yoga a few times a week – at least three times, you can slowly build up to a daily practice. The changes you see will depend on how consistent you are. These changes could be physical and even mental – more energy, ability to sleep better and making conscious choices with respect to your health.

(4)   Go to a doctor if you feel weight gain (or loss) happened quickly and suddenly even though you have been maintaining the same activity levels and dietary pattern.

It’s important to know that Yoga was never meant to be a calorie burner. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a classical 15th century text talks about asanas or the physical practice as a way to gain steadiness of posture (sthairyam), good health (arogyam) and lightness of body (angalaghavam). In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, written between 200 and 400 CE – asana is described as stability (sthiram) and ease (sukham). Bringing these qualities into your practice through the union of the body, breath and the mind, brings balance at all levels.

In its purest form – yoga is simply a way to live better, in harmony with ourselves and those around us. And the body is just the starting point to make this happen.