Question:

I need to lose about 10kg and was wondering if yoga could help me do this. If so, is there a specific type of yoga that would give me faster results?

Answer:

Losing weight can be difficult if we only treat the effects of weight gain and don't really understand the cause. This is where any style of yoga will help. Yoga helps to build a greater appreciation of ourselves, is a gentle self-discipline and teaches us to detach from the mental clutter and not put on so many comfort kilojoules — that's right, emotional eating!

The more physical styles of yoga (power, anusara, Bikram, astanga) or any vinyasa (flowing) based style of yoga will help increasing heart rate in practice and thus, burn kilojoules. However, the effects of dealing with the cause will be the most benefit. So once you lose the 10kg you won't put them back on again.

A recent study I did into heart rate during an intense power vinyasa yoga practice calculated on average we burn about 2300 kilojoules in a one-hour class! That's great exercise. A spin class for the same duration burns about 2500 kilojoules!

Also, over time you'll see improvements in your immune, endocrine, nervous and respiratory systems that will assist in weight loss and keeping it off. The key to weight loss is total wellbeing, physical, mental and spiritual! Good luck. The force is with you!

Duncan Peak — yoga expert
www.powerliving.com.au