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| Does yoga help to lose weight? |
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| It helps. So does eating less. |
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| Yoga helps more to tone than to lose weight... For one thing... even if you burn 10 pounds/kgs of fat, and in turn gain 10 pounds/kgs of muscle, the scale will show ZIP, but you'll be a pant size smaller!!!
Edwina |
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| Between yoga and giving up regular pop (soda) I have lost a lot of weight as well as 2 sizes. I think you just need to eat/drink healthier and be consistant in your exercise and it will work wonders. |
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| Good counsel from Edwina & Chrissy--welcome to the forums to you both! |
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| Dear Mr. Bruce:
Take care of your diet, exercise under proper supervision and well panned YOGA program, plus few herbs and you will reduse.
Avoid Meat, spices, fatty subs and stress.
Namaskar
Dr. Ajai Singh
Toronto |
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| Yes it does and if in combination to herbal, avoiding few specific food and abating stress.
Regards
Dr. Ajay Singh
Toronto
cyaram@hotmail.com |
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| yoga will help u to reduce weight along with little diet restriction.
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| Juicyjuicee:
You have the answer in your own user name: JUICYNG is delicious, great and healthy!!! |
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| Bruce - 2004-07-13 9:52 PM
It helps. So does eating less.  |
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| Yoga alone I do not think will help you lose the amount of weight you want. Weight training to increase lean muscle to boost metabolism is a big help, improved nutrition will be very important as well as cardiovascular activity. A combination is your best bet. |
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| Sure it does.
When your in you aerobic zone your body's optimum full is fat.
Just so you know. |
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| I'm also starting to agree with Zoebird and others. Unless you are power lifting a heck of a lot of weight yoga is probably a better replacement. You'll get more muscle "toning" from chaturangas and other asanas where you are using your own body weight as resistance than you ever will from gym machines and light dumbbells. |
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| Yoga and power lifting are really a lot alike. (The same effect on the body)
The bolt have great benefit for each other. "Said Science. |
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| Okay, I personally have big hips, big thighs, and a big butt. I really want to lose them all. Everything else, yeah i would love to be a little thinner, but my problem area is my hips, butt, and thighs. Will Yoga help tone all of these down? Its hard for me to go out and run, because it hurts my lungs do to Asthma. I am 5 feet, and 125 pounds, if not more, around 125-135. I have tried to get rid of my problem areas but they wont go away. I have quit drinking soda, for over a month now...so i am sure that will pay off in the long run. I eat 3 meals a day, and 1 snack. My breakfast consists of a Bagel, my snack normally is a peice of cheese, and yogurt. My lunch usually concists of a Sandwich, apple sauce, and something else, depending sometimes its crackers, sometimes is Enanomi beans, and sometimes its a fruit like kiwis. My dinner, really depends, sometimes i wont eat anything (depending on how hungry i am)-but its never like grease driven foods anymore.
So what my main concern is, am i eatting healthy enough? I haven't started doing yoga, because i want to know it works. You say you gain muscle, rather then loosing weight. But that doesn't mean that my butt, hips, and thighs will still be BIG, but just muscle right? Because that wouldn't be what i want. I want to slim down, i want to walk in a skirt without my thighs touching. I want to wear pants that actually look GOOD! I want my hips to be much thinner, i know that perhaps my hip bones are just big, but i know that is not the case, there is some fat on them that i would really like to be gone. I also would like to have my "love" handles be gone, my waist is pretty slim, just i have love handles. My legs, besides my hips are pretty skinny, and my wrists are very skinny. My arms are decent, except about a little past my elbow they get semi chunky.
So please please please, help explain this.
Also, all i drink is Juice, and water. Mostly Water. Occasionally Tea, but i do NOT drink soda AT ALL anymore.
Edited by BrokenBallet 2005-09-24 2:21 AM
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| First of all there is a myth that you can lose weight in certain areas and target certain spots. Don't believe it. You of course know that the key to your problem is diet and exercise. Of course, that sounds simpler than it is. There are lots of ways to combine diet and exercise to get the effect you want.
Diet: talking about diet is like talking about religion or politics. People are very vocal and have definite opinions and don't really care about your side of the story. My vote is for the Zone Diet and/or the Paleo Diet: one or both in combination. Avoid refined sugar, partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, grains, dairy. Eat lean meats and fish, fresh fruits and vegetables and nuts. Learn about portion control. Sounds like you are making an effort to eat right, but your percentages are probably off. Try to eat 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat at each meal and snack.
Exercise: My vote is for lots of yoga: an active style of yoga like ashtanga, vinyasa and/or anusara. Although sitting around waiting for your kundalini to rise is great it won't melt the fat off your a$$. In addition to yoga, you should do some exercises for general physical preparedness: squats, lunges, pullups, dips, pushups, situps, back extensions, etc. If you can't run, then get on the rower. I have asthma too but working out has only made it better.
If you want get your heart pumping, then do sprints. Cardio doesn't have to be 30-60 minutes on an elliptical machine. Do this: Tabata Squats. 8 sets of squats (just you bending down as low as you can with your heels on the floor) done for 20 seconds with 10 seconds of rest in between. You shouldn't do less than 12 squats in each 20 second set. Shoot for closer to 20. This workout is 4 minutes in length but is a greater cardio challenge than 30 minutes on the bike.
If you still want more. Then learn to lift. Avoid the machines at the gym. Learn to do REAL lifts. Learn to pick weight up off the floor, put it over your head, move it for distance. Learn some gymnastic skills. Dance. Go outside and play.
BrokenBallet - 2005-09-24 2:16 AM
Okay, I personally have big hips, big thighs, and a big butt. I really want to lose them all. Everything else, yeah i would love to be a little thinner, but my problem area is my hips, butt, and thighs. Will Yoga help tone all of these down? Its hard for me to go out and run, because it hurts my lungs do to Asthma. I am 5 feet, and 125 pounds, if not more, around 125-135. I have tried to get rid of my problem areas but they wont go away. I have quit drinking soda, for over a month now...so i am sure that will pay off in the long run. I eat 3 meals a day, and 1 snack. My breakfast consists of a Bagel, my snack normally is a peice of cheese, and yogurt. My lunch usually concists of a Sandwich, apple sauce, and something else, depending sometimes its crackers, sometimes is Enanomi beans, and sometimes its a fruit like kiwis. My dinner, really depends, sometimes i wont eat anything (depending on how hungry i am)-but its never like grease driven foods anymore.
So what my main concern is, am i eatting healthy enough? I haven't started doing yoga, because i want to know it works. You say you gain muscle, rather then loosing weight. But that doesn't mean that my butt, hips, and thighs will still be BIG, but just muscle right? Because that wouldn't be what i want. I want to slim down, i want to walk in a skirt without my thighs touching. I want to wear pants that actually look GOOD! I want my hips to be much thinner, i know that perhaps my hip bones are just big, but i know that is not the case, there is some fat on them that i would really like to be gone. I also would like to have my "love" handles be gone, my waist is pretty slim, just i have love handles. My legs, besides my hips are pretty skinny, and my wrists are very skinny. My arms are decent, except about a little past my elbow they get semi chunky.
So please please please, help explain this.
Also, all i drink is Juice, and water. Mostly Water. Occasionally Tea, but i do NOT drink soda AT ALL anymore. |
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| But my question was...will it just take up the space with muscle, and no fat? I don't want to be a big hipped, big thighed, big butted, ball of muscle! Because i just want to get rid of the fat, NOT gain it all in muscle, and still be the same size. Im a size 9, and i want a small butt, and i want small hips and a butt, i want to be a size 3, or even a 5 would be nice then what i am.
Will Running, allow me to lose my butt, and it not be muscle, it be actual fat loss, and not so much muscle coming back to it, to make it the same way.
My point is, no i dont want to be all skins and bones, but i dont want to be as big as i am now , just full of muscle. I want to be healthy, and actually LOOK skinny.
A lot of my lower weight came from steroids when i was younger, for my Ashma.
Edited by BrokenBallet 2005-09-25 1:54 AM
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Size 9 is skinny. Eat, drink, exercise and be happy  |
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| BrokenBallet - 2005-09-25 1:41 AM
But my question was...will it just take up the space with muscle, and no fat? I don't want to be a big hipped, big thighed, big butted, ball of muscle! Because i just want to get rid of the fat, NOT gain it all in muscle, and still be the same size. Im a size 9, and i want a small butt, and i want small hips and a butt, i want to be a size 3, or even a 5 would be nice then what i am.
Will Running, allow me to lose my butt, and it not be muscle, it be actual fat loss, and not so much muscle coming back to it, to make it the same way.
My point is, no i dont want to be all skins and bones, but i dont want to be as big as i am now , just full of muscle. I want to be healthy, and actually LOOK skinny.
A lot of my lower weight came from steroids when i was younger, for my Ashma.
People have this ridiculous idea that it is easy to grow muscles. Where does that come from? Why do think people sweat so hard in the gym and lift all those weights? Why do you think that people take steriods? It's really hard to put on muscle....a lot harder than you think. People just use that as a LAME EXCUSE not to exercise. "I don't want to be too muscular." Puhleeeze!
So you create 2 problems: 1) people do weak exercises to avoid building too much muscle: like 50 reps with tiny dumbbells. High rep, low weight exercises are useless. 2) Conversely people workout like bodybuilders because that's what they read in magazines. If all you want to do is gain muscle, then doing bodybuilder workouts that you read in a magazine will take you down that road. However, one can exercise to gain strength as opposed to size and that will produce some hypertrophy but only proportional to your strength.
So to answer your question, Brokenballet, I suggest you start working out and stop making excuses. Running will help you lose weight. Writing about it on the internet won't. If you are reading magazines while on the treadmill then your results will be subpar. Yoga will work too, but only if you do it.
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Expert Yogi
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| Thankis for that yoga guy and sorry I was a little short with my last reply. Even at 5 ft, size 9 is great for most people. I am 5' 2" and usually a size 10 and feel that is a great place to be. First, BB keep working on the food thing. Don't skip meals, don't drink a lot of juice. Add in as many green leafy, juicy vegetables as you like - as long as you don't smother them in sauce or fatty dressing, you can eat a mountain of veg and not gain anything except better health. My experience is tha tif you skip dinner, you'll be really hungry by 10 or 11 the next day and probably overdo lunch or cheat yourself by eating something junky.
As far as yoga goes, I can tell you my experience. I did lose weight but not until I began a regular practice (daily for one hour) and no, I do not practice an aerobic form. I study Iyengar yoga. And although the exercise folks here will correctly say there is no such thing as "toning" what DOES happen is that do seem to take up less space than the fat did. I looked a lot
"trimmer" and better before I looked thinner.
Yoga is a wonderful form of exercise. Find a good class and try it for 8 or 10 weeks. It can be very beneficial for asthma, as well. I heard a very interesting thing about diet and asthma when I watched Jamie Oliver's school lunch shows. One school had staff that spent every lunch hour doing asthma puffers for the kids. Once they started eating good whole foods there were NO kids lined up for puffers at lunch - ever. And that is just the difference of one meal per day! |
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| Making excuses, would be me saying oh well, i dont want to exercise anymore. Im sorry but i am not going to go out, and do some excersize BEFORE i get the right information on it. Everywhere i look, it says doing things like lunges, will make your butt just more muscly then less fatty. But if you want to be rude about it, then go ahead. Im not making excuses, i just want the RIGHT information, is that making excuses?
So ..what if i just HURRY up and do an excersize, and then it does not have the effect i want , and it would be a RESULT of being too hasty and not having all the right information. Because im apparently making "excuses". |
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Expert Yogi
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| OK - we understand that. But fat does not "turn to muscle" in the way that you would get the same volume of muscle where fat used to be. Think of someone with big, fluffy hair and how it looks so much thinner when it is braided (it took quite awhile to think that one up!). Muscle moves into the bone and makes you look thinner even before you lose weight. I think yogaguy pointed out that body builders really have to work to make big muscles. I don't know any yogis with gigantic muscles - only long. lean and nicely defined ones.
Now off you go and find yourself a yoga class and report back soon!  |
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| BrokenBallet - 2005-09-25 1:41 AM
But my question was...will it just take up the space with muscle, and no fat? I don't want to be a big hipped, big thighed, big butted, ball of muscle! Because i just want to get rid of the fat, NOT gain it all in muscle, and still be the same size. Im a size 9, and i want a small butt, and i want small hips and a butt, i want to be a size 3, or even a 5 would be nice then what i am.
do you have a body type that will allow for this? not all bodies are the same. I am the same height as my sister, but the body type that she has is different from mine. She's a great looking size 8-10. I'm a great looking size 4-6. We're different body types. No amount of exercise or diet is going to get my sister to a size 4. and no amount of weight training and eating is going to get me to a healthy size 8-10. (i could always gain weight and become overweight, but that would be unhealthy for me. But, it's healthy for my sister).
I recommend the book Body, Mind, and Sport by John Doulliard to begin to understand body types and how to have healthy bodies.
The sizes of clothing change every year, and shop to shop. They're meaning less. Your health, that's what you want to look to. UNderstanding what is healthy for you, what is the right size and shape for you--that's what's important. |
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| BrokenBallet - 2005-09-25 4:16 PM
Im not making excuses, i just want the RIGHT information
in exercise and sports science, nutrition, and all of that, there is no 'right' information. There is a great deal of information, and a great deal of varying opinions on that information. What you have to do is become a savvy reader and decide for yourself which information is the information that you want to follow, which information will work for you.
So ..what if i just HURRY up and do an excersize, and then it does not have the effect i want , and it would be a RESULT of being too hasty and not having all the right information. Because im apparently making "excuses".
you actually can't predict the results. The same exercise on different bodies will have different results based on any number of factors including body type, methodology (there are multiple ways of doing the same exercise--for instance, high weight and low rep, low weight and high rep, super slow, super fast, etc), nutrition, etc.
when you read an article in something like 'shape magazine' they're dealing with a central idea and with a certain body type in mind--either the very thin ectomorph or the mesomorph with ectomorphic tendencies. THese exercises may provide these results for some of these people with this body type, but probably not ALL of them. And, the results will be different on another person.
But, generally speaking, if you want to decrease your body fat percentage, you need to increase your cardio. Running will work. Cycling will work. Walking will work. Hiking will work. You get the idea? The most effiecient cardio for decreasing body fat is what is called 'interval training' or 'speed work.'
Gaining muscle, though, is part of the component of lean-ness. You will gain muscle from any activity, but muscle takes up less space than fat. pound for pound, they weigh the same, but muscle has less volumn. So, you could actually weight more, be muscular, and yet be physically smaller than when you began. Lifting weights is a great way to gain muscle mass.
Of course, different people respond differently to different forms of exercise. My sister's body type will gain a lot of muscle in her legs if she lifts weights--so much so that she actually needs to get pants with wider pant legs--even though her waist and hips will be basicly the same. Whereas when i gain muscle from weight training, i tend to fit into smaller pants, and look leaner. We're just different like that--two different body types.
So, you won't know until you start doing it and seeing what the results are. Then, you can go back to your information and fine tune based on yoru knowledge and experimentation.
(also, there's no such thing as toning).
But, tourist's advice is best. Eat well, have fun with your movement, and get enough rest. |
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Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | zoebird - 2005-09-26 12:48 PM
do you have a body type that will allow for this? not all bodies are the same. I am the same height as my sister, but the body type that she has is different from mine. She's a great looking size 8-10. I'm a great looking size 4-6. We're different body types. No amount of exercise or diet is going to get my sister to a size 4. and no amount of weight training and eating is going to get me to a healthy size 8-10. (i could always gain weight and become overweight, but that would be unhealthy for me. But, it's healthy for my sister).
How funny, I have a younger sister with a body like your's Zoebird....she was the skinny one and I was the rounder sis with a little bit of everything. I always wondered if it was caused by the fact that I was a year and a half older than her and would steal her bottle from her crib. My Mother would find me in the closet with both bottles in hand,
IF, I wanted to be like my sister, I could very easily. This is what I would have to do...STARVE TO DEATH for about 3 months and then I will be a nice size 5 or 6. I do not look good when I am this skinny and it was soo uncomfortable. Not to mention how UN-healthy I would be. I have no desire to force this type of weight loss on myself (which I did 20 years ago), it was pointless because I always ended up back at my healthier size 9, which suits me just fine. I think the best thing anyone could ever do with theirselves is be happy and content with who they are and then if you want to adjust, do so moderately and reasonably. Dropping 4 sizes from a size 9 is totally unreasonable and not exactly smart, since a size 9 for most women is a fair moderate reasonable average size. Dropping a size 20 to a size 12 is a different matter and probably needed and more reasonable for most people. |
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Yoga and weight loss
