How does yoga help with weight loss

It was one of Bob’s favorite meals: a medium rare 10 oz steak with sautéed mushrooms, onions, a light gravy, baked potato with sour cream and cheese, and peas. The smell was fantastic. The juices in Bob’s mouth were flowing and he could just imagine the taste of that first bite.

Bob was not disappointed. The steak was fantastic. But a strange thing happened about halfway through the meal. Everything was still tasting great, but his body was telling him it was time to stop eating. He was no longer hungry!

This has been happening shortly after Bob started doing a regular yoga practice.

How does yoga help with weight loss

Yoga helps with weight loss by making you more aware of your body and its reaction to various situations. You become more in tune with your body and its signals as a result of your yoga practice.

The body reaction we are focusing on here is the “I am full” reaction. The next step once you start to recognize this signal from your body is to start to pay attention to it and take the next step. The next step is to actually stop eating even though there is still food on your plate.

The first couple of times that you get the “I am full” signal from your body you will ignore the signal and keep on eating because the food tastes so good. I know because I went through this many times. I ignored the signal.

What happens if your ignore the signal

When you ignore the “I am full” signal and do not stop eating then you finish the meal and you think “That was great!”, “That was one of the best meals I ever had!”

Later you get another signal from your body: “I am stuffed”; “I am so full, I can hardly move”; “I am uncomfortable”; “I feel heavy”; “I feel sluggish”.

Eventually you will connect these uncomfortable signals with the fact that you ignored the “I am full” signal earlier and kept on eating. Now you are suffering from eating too much.

The next step is to realize that you going to feel uncomfortable if you keep on eating after the “I am full” signal and actually stop eating even though there is food left on the plate.

What happens if you pay attention to the signal

Once you start to pay attention to the “I am full” signal a couple of things start to happen.

1. You stop eating while there is still food on your plate. You start to break the habit that you have to eat everything that you have in front of you.
2. You will avoid all of those negative / bad signals. You will start to feel good after your meal. You will feel full of energy and ready to go.
3. You start reducing your portion size. You begin to realize that you will be eating less and start putting less on your plate and then you will be able to finish your meal before the “I am full” signal comes.
4. You will start to adjust your diet. You will begin to emphasis some foods and you will start to reduce some other foods. The feedback (“I feel heavy”, “I feel sluggish”) from your body will tell you that you should be eating less of a particular food.

Do you become aware of these signals right away

It takes a while for you to become aware of these signals from your body. The signals are there already. You have to become more aware of these signals. You do this by becoming more in tune with your body. This happens when you establish consistent yoga practice.

How often do you have to do yoga to lose weight

You have to have regular and frequent yoga practice.

A regular practice means that you are doing a physical yoga practice consistently week after week and month after month. Your yoga practice is part of your weekly routine.

A frequent practice means that you are a physical doing yoga practice between 2 and 3 times a week, week after week and month after month.

With a frequent and regular yoga practice you will be doing about 8 to 12 classes or more in a month.

Does the weight loss happen right away

The weight loss does not happen right away.

First you need to establish a regular, frequent and consistent practice.

Second you need to become more in tune with the signals from your body and start to react to them and modify your eating habits.

Once you know that you need to look for these signals, you will start to become aware of them and start to act on them.

How is yoga different from other diet programs

Yoga is different from other diet programs because you are training yourself to recognize the signals from your body and take positive actions to honor the requests that your body is making.

Is the weight loss permanent

As long as you continue your yoga practice and continue to pay attention to the signals from your body you will continue to lose weight and keep the weight off.

Summary

Yoga can help you loss weight but requires a few things from you

• Pay attention to the signals from your body
• Stop eating when your body says you are full
• Modify your eating habits based on the feedback from your body.

Bob still eats his steak with all of the trimmings, but now he is taking a much small portion. He is able to finish his meal before his body tells it is time to stop.

After the meal his body feels light and energetic and his weight is starting to come down.