Does Yoga Burn Calories?
Learn whether yoga is good for weight loss and how yoga affects fitness.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no yogi master. But I’ve done my fair share of power yoga, Hatha Yoga, Bikram Yoga, and even accidental, freestyle yoga when attempting to simultaneously change the diapers of my twin baby boys. Most folks know that yoga will certainly stretch muscles, increase flexibility, and help you to relax. But is yoga good for weight loss? You’ll find the answer in this article.
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What Is Yoga?
I could easily write an entire article or book on the nitty-gritty details of yoga, but the basic overview is as follows: more than simple stretches, yoga is focused on creating balance, strength, flexibility and relaxation in the body through a series of poses, postures, movements and breathing patterns. Different types of yoga require differing amounts of balance, strength, power or focus–but the concept of focused breathing while moving from one posture to the next is fairly constant. And I do realize that by summarizing yoga in two sentences I have probably risked offending passionate yoga practitioners, but hey, space is limited.
Calorie Burn of Popular Exercises
As you know, the number of calories that you burn is a major determinant of weight loss, and calorie burn is highly variable. For example, heavy people burn more calories because they have to carry more body weight. People with a genetically high metabolism also burn more calories, as do people with a higher percentage of lean muscle fibers. But to put yoga in a proper weight loss context, let’s examine the average calorie burn of basic familiar activity modes.
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Resting: At rest, you’ll burn 1 to 1.5 calories per minute (depending on your body weight) or 45 to 68 calories in 45 minutes.
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Wakling slowly: Walking at a leisurely 2 miles per hour pace, you’ll burn 2 to 5 calories per minute, or 90 to 225 calories in 45 minutes.
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Walk briskly: Walking at a more brisk 4 miles per hour pace, you’ll burn 4.6 to 10 calories per minute, or 207 to 450 calories in 45 minutes.
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Running: Running at 6.7 miles per hour, you’ll burn 9 to 19 calories per minute, or 405 to 855 calories per hour.
Does Yoga Burn Calories?
If you go to a gym, the average yoga class will last around 45 minutes. To burn at least 800 calories during that class, it would need to be as strenuous as running at 6.7 miles per hour during the entire class. If you’ve been in a yoga class before, I doubt that you’ve left feeling the same cardiovascular fatigue as you’d feel if you had been charging down a treadmill the entire time–and considering that much of your time in that class is spent sitting and breathing, holding still without moving a muscle, or lying on your back and breathing, there is literally zero chance that you’re burning the unbelievable 1000 calories per hour that some yoga enthusiasts claim yoga actually burns.
But rather than hypothesize on how many calories yoga burns, let’s look at the research…
In 2005 and 2007, two separate studies measured the metabolic rate of people taking a beginner yoga class and found a calorie burn of 2.3-3.2 calories per minute, about the same calorie burn as strolling through the mall–or about 104-144 calories in a 45 minute workout. At this rate, to burn one pound (or 3500 calories) of fat, you’d have to perform over 28 hours of yoga!
Does More Advanced Yoga Burn More Calories?
But wait! Isn’t it possible that people taking a beginner yoga class may burn fewer calories because they aren’t performing advanced movements or doing hot yoga at a high room temperature? In other words, could more difficult yoga routines burn more calories than a beginner yoga class or easier form of yoga (such as Hatha Yoga)?
It turns out that another 2007 study investigated that very question and measured the heart rate of participants performing a more vigorous form of yoga called Ashtanga Yoga. Researchers compared that type of more vigorous yoga to the same types of beginner yoga routines from the other studies I mentioned.
In the study, the heart rate during Ashtanga Yoga increased by over 30 beats from the resting heart rate, whereas the heart rate during the easier yoga sessions increased by only half that much, or about 15 beats.
Will Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
That may seem like a big difference, but when it comes to weight loss, a heart rate of just 30 beats over resting heart rate is not very significant. To put this in context, your heart rate can go 30 beats over your resting heart rate when you’re gardening, walking the dog, or vacuuming the house–and could increase by 15 beats per minute through the mere act of standing.
So although it’s true that an increase of 30 beats over resting heart rate will certainly improve cardio respiratory fitness, an increase of this small magnitude is simply not going to give you much bang for your buck when it comes to weight loss and won’t get your house as clean as vacuuming will.
Will Hot Yoga Help You Lose Weight?
But perhaps you’ve had friends tell you about their invigorating hot yoga experience, or heard about incredibly difficult hot yoga in the news. Surely, that must burn more calories! In hot yoga, or Bikram Yoga, the temperature in the yoga room is turned up higher than 105 degrees, with a recommendation of at least 40 percent humidity. As a result, people taking a hot yoga class experience more fatigue, a higher heart rate, and a significantly greater amount of exhaustion (not to mention body odor).
But this relatively higher amount of perceived exertion is not really due to the fact that people are burning more calories. As a matter of fact, by simply walking into a hot room and standing for 45 minutes, your heart rate will significantly increase. That is because your body’s primary mode of cooling is to sweat and to shunt blood to your extremities. As you sweat, you lose blood volume, and as you shunt blood, your heart has to work harder to deliver that blood. And as a result your heart rate increases.
But the increased heart rate is not due to you moving more muscles or burning more calories. It’s simply your body’s environmental, temperature-regulating response to hot conditions, and the only significant weight you’re going to lose in a hot yoga class is water weight. For more on temperature and the body’s calorie burning reaction, check out this article by the Nutrition Diva: Does Air Conditioning Make You Fat?
Yoga and Your Metabolism
Could it be that yoga may actually slow your metabolism? In fact, a 2006 study measured the metabolic rate of yoga people vs. non-yoga people, corrected for body weight, and found a 15% lower metabolism in the yoga group. To put this in context, that means that if you normally burn 2000 calories at rest, you might lower that calorie burn to 1700 calories at rest if you take up yoga.
That is because yoga is a relaxing activity, and actually slows down your body’s “fight-and-flight” reactions, also known as your sympathetic nervous system. Although this is highly beneficial for extending your life span, controlling stress, and making you feel good, it’s certainly not going to shed any pounds.
Once again, I have to emphasize that I have nothing against yoga and I do some form of it nearly every day to improve my flexibility, balance, and relaxation. However, when it comes to calorie burning for weight loss, yoga is really one of the least effective modes of exercise. But before I am struck with lightning by the yoga gods and goddesses, let me express one final thought: if the practice of yoga gives you a greater mental discipline and body awareness, and you use those benefits to motivate yourself to exercise, then yoga may indirectly be beneficial for weight loss.
Yoga image courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.
