Yoga for weight loss. Scientists vs myths

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At the beginning of his yogic path, engaging in Cultural center of Indian Embassy in Moscow, I never heard from teachers in India that yoga will make us slim and attractive. Instead, they day in and day taught us re-acquainted with your body, control the breath, to follow internal sensations. Later in the mid-2000s, yoga studios began to appear in Moscow like mushrooms after the autumn rain, and fight for new customers with advertising slogans that yoga is ideal for perfect physical form and sexuality.

Fashion now the style of Bikram yoga has gained its popularity due to the loud promises of its founder that 1 class can burn more than 1000 kcal. The uniqueness of the method of Bikram yoga lies in the fact that the hall is maintained at a temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (like air in a hot Indian summer day) and a certain humidity.

From the book by William broad in "the Science of yoga: the demystification": Bikram Choudhury the founder of hot yoga and man, famous all over Llagostera its collection of "rolex" and "rolls-Royces". Its brand is so popular and universal that someone called him Macaulay. All studios Bikram yoga is given only one and the same sequence of 26 asanas and 2 breathing exercises. Chowdhury grew up in poverty in Calcutta, but, having arrived in the United States, has opened hundreds of yoga centers and rich.

In interviews and his book makes fun of Bikram Kundalini AVI and Vinyasa and Iyengar methods. On the contrary, your own style Chowdhury describes a line from the comic: "You will become supermachine and supertensile!»

After Bikram yoga, I almost always feel worn out due to dehydration, experiencing dizziness, nausea, and fatigue, but not like after an intense sports activities on a treadmill and stationary Bicycle or physical labor, for example, in the country. Rich potootdelenie and fatigue deceptively suggests that one zanjatie managed to part with a huge amount of calories. Many of my friends go into a hot room the day after the feast or celebrations in order to “burn all the excess”. In America fans of “hot” yoga brag to your friends that they can now eat as many, because they have such a wonderful tool for staying in shape.

Meanwhile, a group of scientists from the State University of San Diego (USA) conducted a study which showed that practicing Bikram yoga gives only a slight and moderate intensity, and the amount spent during class kcal is in the range 179 to 478, which, of course, contrary to the stated 1000 kcal. And the main reason is not lack of “Hotness” method, and that Bikram yoga gives a relatively light load and aerobic intensity.

Light exercises mean load in the range of less than 50% of the maximum heart rate of a man, sweating and weak, and breathing steady. Moderate physical activity – in the range of 50-70% of maximum heart rate, the heart rate increases and breathing quickens. Intense assume the load from 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, the heartbeat quickens and you need to make the effort to say even a few words. Doctors recommend to have moderate exercise five times a week for thirty minutes.

The researchers also found that experienced practitioners will burn more calories as they perform more complex asanas and more-stressing the muscles. That is, the higher the complexity of the practice and more time holding postures, the greater the slimming effect they can give.

Another wave of self-confident assurances about chudodejstvennom the effect yoga has always proceeded from the "popular" yoga-journals, Internet, books; they argued that yoga speeds up the metabolism and therefore promotes weight loss. Inspired by these claims, in the yoga Studio rushed the crowd suffering from obesity. The claim that yoga stimulates metabolism, ingrained so deeply that yoga studios use it to lure new customers.

The spread of the myth about weight loss has contributed to yoga teacher from new York, Tara Stiles.

From the book by William broad in "the Science of yoga: the demystification": Tara Stiles — fashion model, became a yoga teacher, otkryvaja yoga Studio in Manhattan "Strala Yoga". In 2010 she released a book "Yoga for harmony, calm, sexy yoga which became a number one bestseller on Amazon. The title of the book Stiles made "slim" in the first place and tried not to be unfounded. In the Chapter on weight loss, she wrote about the effectiveness of yoga for weight loss. Stiles said that yoga "will start your metabolism" — and cited the example of a series of poses that were supposed to force the body to switch to accelerated mode. "Even if you believe that you have a slow metabolism — reported styles, performing this sequence twice in a week, you run it on full. And it will help you to burn calories throughout the day." The main theses typed larger and in bold, repeated at the top of the page, and a special sequence was called the complex "for emergency starting the metabolism". No scientific study, these recommendations had not.

Interestingly, for 4 years before writing the book, Stiles Indian scientists have proved that regular practice of yoga reduces the metabolism on average by 13 percent, due to relaxation and slowing of physiological functions, which creates a tendency to weight gain, as people required less food and fewer calories, but if they continue to eat as usual, you will begin to gain weight. This discovery is directly contrary to the book described by Stiles and advertising slogans, and remains ignored by the majority of yoga publications and yoga teachers, some of whom continue to stick to their line and to mislead.

An article about the results of the American study published in my blog, caused a storm of indignation. Some have argued that yoga can give absolutely everything and everyone, regardless of level of motivation, because it is "ancient and great science." Others that yoga helped to get rid of excess weight on themselves and their friends. Still others philosophically noticed that yoga in General does not serve the purpose of weight loss. But no one mentioned about the scientific evidence, medical facts or research, like yoga and science exist in different worlds. Indeed, it is difficult to measure medical devices how yoga affects the level of stress or happiness. But scientists well versed in physiology and anatomy, and it would be foolish to ignore modern research that help us discover something new about a favorite activity.

I'm not saying that yoga is useless for weight maintenance. It can be part of a special weight loss program or detox, but hardly "burned" fifteen hundred calories from lunch at McDonald's. Yoga helps to cope with the emotional "stuck stress" to control desires and lead a more healthy lifestyle. All this is possible and when practicing Bikram yoga, and Strala yoga and all other styles, because yoga leads to awareness, even if in the beginning we set ourselves such a narrow purpose, like a slim figure and getting rid of excess weight. All this can be a "side effect of practice", as the great Iyengar. Yoga has in its Arsenal a huge variety of techniques and methods, modern science does not refute it, and allow you to use the tools of yoga where it is more efficient.published 

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

  

Source: www.yogabodylanguage.com/yoga-weight-loss/