Did you know yoga isn’t just for relaxation and flexibility? Depending on how you flow, stretch, and breathe, yoga can actually help you torch between 180 to 460 calories per session!

The exact number depends on a few key factors, like the style of yoga you practice, how intense or long the class is, and even whether you’re male or female. The Mayo Clinic estimates that a 160-pound person will burn 183 calories in a 60-minute Hatha (beginning) yoga lesson.

In comparison, the following are the approximate calories burned for various activities, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA):

Activity Calories burned:

• 330 for walking and carrying clubs

• 480 for aerobics

• 510 for slow freestyle swimming

• 590 for running at 5 mph

The primary health advantage of yoga is not calorie burning, however you will burn calories while taking a yoga class. The number of calories you burn depends on a number of variables, including:

• Considerations for yoga classes include style, level, length, speed, and intensity.

• For example, the quantity of calories burned during Hatha yoga, a basic type of yoga that is typically taught at a slower pace, will differ from that of Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga.

Bikram Yoga

Bikram yoga is practiced in a room heated to 105°F with 40% humidity. It usually consists of a 90-minute session with 26 postures plus two breathing exercises.

Many of the poses demand strength, flexibility, and balance. A 2014 Colorado State University study discovered that men burnt an average of 460 calories and women burned 330 calories per Bikram session.

Can Yoga Help You Lose Weight?

Weight loss is accomplished by either burning more calories through physical activity or eating less calories. The vast majority of people who lose and maintain their weight do so using both techniques.

Yoga burns fewer calories than other activities. However, a 2016 studyTrusted Source indicated that yoga may have a variety of benefits, making it a viable alternative for long-term, healthy weight loss.

The yoga community offers social support and role modelling to those seeking to reduce weight. The researchers further proposed that gaining awareness through yoga can aid people:

• Avoid harmful foods

• Avoid comfort eating

• Resist stress eating

• Become more aware of their body’s hunger signals and reduce cravings

• Have a diminished appetite

• Improved self-esteem and mood

• Reduce back or joint pain that was preventing greater workout

Yoga, Sleep, and Fat Loss

According to the National Sleep Foundation, yoga can improve your sleep. People with insomnia benefit from doing yoga on a daily basis.

Benefits of sleep training include faster falling asleep, longer sleep, and faster resumption of sleep after waking up.

A 2018 study contrasted one group of adults who slept normally to another group who slept only five times per week. When both groups lowered their calorie intake, the sleep-restricted group lost less fat. This implies that insufficient sleep has a deleterious impact on body composition, particularly fat loss.

If excellent sleep helps you lose fat, and yoga helps you sleep better, it stands to reason that yoga can help people lose fat.

Yoga and Long-Term Weight Management

A 2005 National Cancer Institute-funded study of 15,500 middle-aged women and men discovered that those who were normal weight at 45 and practiced yoga on a daily basis gained around 3 pounds less than the average person by the age of 55.

The study also found that overweight adults who practiced yoga lost approximately 5 pounds over a 10-year period from the ages of 45 to 55, compared to 14 pounds acquired by people who did not practice yoga.

The researchers found that these findings were most likely the effect of yoga practitioners taking a more conscious approach to eating.

Go Home With this Advice

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you ingest. Although yoga class burns calories, there are other physical activities that burn more calories in the same amount of time.

However, yoga may be able to help you lose weight and keep it off through mindfulness and better sleep.