Is Yoga A Good Weight Loss Tactic?

Yoga is a great lifestyle choice for lots of reasons, and there are many health benefits of yoga.

It is good for you physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Yoga can help make you fitter, calmer, stronger, and more flexible.

But...
Is yoga a good weight loss tactic?
Now, I used to be in the Army, so, I purposely used the word "tactic".

You see, in the military, you start with an overall "strategy" about what the goal is and possible methods to achieve that goal.

Those methods are called tactics.

That's a short version, but, you get the idea, I am sure.

So, when you try to come up with a weight loss strategy, you actually want to incorporate several tactics into your plan.

Everybody wants the "magic bullet". They are looking for the single thing they can do to produce the results they want, and, the easier, the better.

That's why yoga is so attractive for those interested in losing weight. After all, it looks so easy, and can produce so many different, and deep, results. It almost seems like "one stop shopping" for health, fitness, happiness, longevity... AND... weight loss.

Problem is that yoga alone is not a good weight loss tactic.

It doesn't raise your heart rate and metabolism, like aerobics. It doesn't increase lean muscle mass, such as resistance training does.

Even the yoga diet, while a great tactic for weight loss in itself, is not a complete answer to the weight gain problem.

However, that's not to say that yoga is not a valuable weight loss tactic.

If you practice it regularly, you will experience many of the health benefits of yoga.

If you combine a regular practice of yoga with other forms of exercise, aerobic and resistance, eat a well-chosen diet, whether you intentionally include the choices of the yoga diet, you will experience many health benefits AND, most probably, loss of excess body fat.

How much weight can you lose?
That's a question that comes up with almost any strategy to lose excess body fat. Because of many factors; age, sex, present and past activity levels, and genetics, just to name a few, the answer is not always simple.

In the long run, and all things being equal, the actual amount of weight that you lose, and, probably more importantly, the excess body fat that you burn, is going to be up to you.

The bottom line is, that, while yoga might not be a great weight loss tactic in itself, when combined with other tactics for losing weight, will produce a wide range of health benefits while adding to the effects of your other weight loss choices and efforts.

Donovan Baldwin is a 70-year-old exerciser, yoga enthusiast, and freelance writer living in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973 BA Accounting), he is a past member of Mensa, and has been a Program Accountant for the Florida State Department of Education, Business Manager of a community mental health center, and a Fiscal Consultant for an educational field office. After retiring from the Army, with 21 years of service, he began writing on health and fitness, and, now publishes articles for his own uses and for use by other webmasters. Learn more about yoga at http://nodiet4me.com/yoga/.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Donovan_Baldwin/19345

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