Does Hot Yoga Burn Calories
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Does Hot Yoga Burn Calories.
For a short and simple answer Yes. Hot yoga, otherwise originally known as Bikram Yoga does burn calories. If you are considering to begin a hot yoga practice I would absolutely recommend it!
HOWEVER…You must be aware that any exercise program usually will not give you the results you may want due to a low quality nutrition. What is nutrition? Simply put: the foods and habits you currently use to fuel your body. More on nutrition later.
How does hot yoga burn calories so well? Number one hot yoga can be a mix of aerobic or anaerobic exercise. You basically get the best of both worlds. Moving through different poses with little to small rest periods in between is constantly challenging your heart and cardiovascular system to keep feeding the muscles, organs and tissue quality blood filled with life giving oxygen. This is where an extreme amount of energy (calories) is used to give fuel and energy to your system/body.
There are many ways to exactly determine how many calories are burned during hot yoga. There are many variables and I would do you a dis-service if I were to give you an EXACT amount burned. I will give you a GENERAL range to consider.
Does Hot Yoga Burn Calories: How Many?
Rule number 1. The more lean muscle tissue you have the more calories you will burn. Why? Because muscle burns more calories than fat. 1lb of muscle burns about 75 calories per hour, where 1lb of fat burns 4 calories per hour.
So this means that the more lean muscle you have the more calories you will burn. The good news to this point is that the more you practice hot yoga the more lean muscle tissue you will build = you burning more and more calories.
Here are some very general numbers: If you are an average size female 140-170lb with a healthy BMI you will burn around 800-1400 calories in one hot yoga class. If you’re an average size male at 170-220 you will burn around 1000-1800 calories in the hour.
THE BIG KICKER! VERY IMPORTANT!
This is the “magical secret” behind yogi’s and their slim and trim waistlines: Most of us do eat a very healthy nutrition, however as with any body resistance training or weight resistance training the MAJORITY of calories burned are used during the FOLLOWING 36 hours.
When you exercise or practice yoga to burn calories you actually break down your muscle tissue and place minor tears and stretches in your connective tissues that all will need to get repaired and strengthened. So immediately after exercise our body goes into repair mode! This will continue for the average person for 36 hours. Sometimes longer if you are just starting out or as fast as 6-12 hours. Your requirements for calories during this stage increases because you body is rebuilding and repairing tissue – you need more energy to repair.
Lets step back for a moment and touch on nutrition and its role in determining how hot yoga burns calories. After any exercise you body is ready and actually NEEDS nutrients. A major mistake you make after exercising or practicing yoga is to NOT EAT. Not eating actually slows down your metabolism and forces your body to “consume itself” to rebuild the broken down tissues. Your body plays a game of “steal from Peter to pay Paul”
The key is to eat something with a good whole complete protein, a medium sized piece of fruit, and plenty of veggies. You body will thank you!
Does Hot Yoga Burn Calories For The Long Run?
As with any habit you create in your life, it takes a minimum of 21 days to establish and lay the foundation for that new habit to take hold. Yoga is a special type of exercise where you can literally practice every single day and experience extremely beneficial results. The key, again, will be to have a solid well planned nutrition.
For newbies to yoga I recommend starting out at least 3 to 5 days per week. Consistency is the key.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to your comments and questions below!