Whenever the discussion of weight loss comes, yoga is always mentioned. The ancient science of yoga has helped many people lose weight and gain vitality. However, yoga poses are not really vigorous like hitting the gym. So unless you are sweating it out in the gym or running, how does yoga help you to lose weight faster?
The answer to this question is a slightly long one. Yoga promotes weight loss internally. As in the yoga poses not only work on your body on a physical level, but also harness the power of your 'chitta' or your 'inner self' to help you lose weight fast. To put in understandable terms, yoga helps in weight loss by stimulating your internal organs.
Every yoga pose has a connection with your internal organs like liver, thyroid etc. Yoga helps in weight loss by ensuring the proper functioning of these organs. We all know that it is the hormonal imbalances and improper fat metabolism that cause most of the us to put on weight. That is why yoga works on weight loss from within and gives excellent results.
Here are some ways in which yoga poses work on your body and help you lose weight effectively.
Getting fat is often an effect of excessive stress. You are stressed about your job, deadlines and work. That makes your mind too tired to work out. But yoga poses like pranayama helps to relax the mind, therefore the body in term responds to exercise.
Fat metabolism is mainly dependent on the liver. So if the liver becomes slow due to an unhealthy lifestyle, fat metabolism suffers. Yoga poses like Bhujangasana and Dhanurasana stimulate the liver and detoxify it. As a result, fat metabolism gets quicker and better.
When you are jogging, your heart rate is uniformly high. But yoga helps in weight loss much more by raising your heart rate in short spells and bringing it down again. This does not put too much pressure on the heart and yet helps you lose weight.
Your nervous system is under tremendous stress due to a very busy lifestyle; when you breathe stale air and stare at a computer screen all day. Yoga poses like the corpse pose and kapalbhati soothe your nerves.
Thyroxine hormone from the thyroid gland is responsible for balancing the rate of our metabolism. When it functions slowly or less, you tend to put on weight. Yoga poses like Matsyasana helps to activate the thyroid gland and thus speed up your metabolism.
Losing weight is one battle won, but if your muscles are not strong and flexible then you are not fit. The yoga poses stretch your muscles and helps your body become flexible.
The normal pH of the body should be 7.38. People who are overweight are usually more acidic. When there is too much acidity, the body starts storing fats as buffer. Yoga poses like Janushirasana help restore the pH balance of the body.
Toxic food sometimes blocks up your colon. This leads to bloating and eventually it can poison your blood. Certain special yoga poses help to clean the colon and lose weight.
Certain yoga poses like the seated forward bend helps to generate weight inside the body. When there is an internal warmth due to the nervous system, you lose weight naturally.