If you want to lose weight easily, consider trying yoga. Yoga poses can help you to burn more calories. But there are other elements of the yogic system, such as meditation, that can also support healthy weight loss.
Losing Weight with Yoga: Overview
When people think about losing weight, they usually think that they just have to burn more calories. The truth is that stress also plays a significant role in making people overweight. Stress can also cause your weight loss efforts to fail. When stress hormones such as cortisol are coursing through your bloodstream, you may feel an uncontrollable urge to eat even when you're not hungry. Yoga offers many quick and easy ways to lose weight. You can burn a lot of calories practicing certain yoga postures or asanas. However, even if you choose a yoga routine that doesn't burn a lot of calories, yoga can still help you to lose weight.
Reducing Stress and Weight through Yogic Meditation
Yogic meditation is simple to learn. Simply sit down on the floor. Allow the index finger and thumb of each hand to touch. Place the backs of your hands on your knees. Breathe deeply and loudly in and out through your nose. Pay attention to the breath, following it with your mind as it moves in and out of your body.
Several recent studies have shown that meditation can reduce the temptation to overeat. One study was conducted by Jean Kristeller at Indiana State University involved 18 women with overeating habits. After learning meditation techniques, the women were able to significantly reduce the number of times they binged each week. Meditation doesn't reduce the tendency to overeat by force of willpower. Instead, it reduces the desire to overeat. Thus you can lose weight much more easily by using meditation than with traditional weight loss techniques.
Yoga Routines for Weight Loss
A vinyasa-style yoga sequence can help you to lose weight quickly and easily. Hot yoga, which is practiced in a heated room, is a very quick way to lose weight. Bikram Yoga is one of the most popular forms of hot yoga, but not the only one. Power yoga and Ashtanga yoga are also vinyasa-style. Vinyasa style yoga is best for people who are already in shape. However, even if you're not in excellent condition, there are easy ways to lose weight with yoga. In Iyengar yoga, the postures are held longer with a longer transition between them. This style of yoga is typically more accessible to beginners than other styles. It also burns fewer calories than vinyasa-style yoga. However, even gentle and restorative yoga postures can help you to lose weight by reducing stress and calming the central nervous system.
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Sources:
Lara Evans Bracciante "Meditate, Lose Weight" http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/656
Lori Hall Steele "How to Lose Weight with Yoga" http://life.gaiam.com/gaiam/p/How-to-Lose-Weight-with-Yoga.html