As a Bikram Yoga Teacher I get this question a lot: Will Bikram yoga help me lose weight? Recently I found this on the Mayo Clinic website. What I think is great is that it clearly states where/how our fat gets released from our bodies-- through sweat (yeah Bikram heated room) and carbon dioxide air exhaled from our lungs: that's what we start with: Pranayama breathing....so breath and sweat (the only thing we don't do (hopefully) in the room is urinate. On the other side a calorie is the amount of energy used to raise one gram of water one degree centrigrade -- so if the room is doing the work for you --you are not burning the calorie. I have been a teacher for seven years and have witnessed folks who "rely on the room" to get the sweat on. Just like in the gym you have to do the work in order to use the energy to raise the temperature to release the fat. The room aids in the release of the broken down fat. You plus the room equal results. Here's the article:
Question Body fat: Where does it go when you lose weight?
Where does body fat go when you lose weight?
Answer
from Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.
When you consume fewer calories than your body needs, your body turns to fat for energy. Your fat cells (triglycerides) provide the fuel for this energy.
Through a series of complex metabolic processes, triglycerides are broken down into two different components — glycerol and fatty acids — which are absorbed into your liver, kidney and muscle. Here, these components are further broken down by chemical processes that ultimately produce energy for your body.
The heat generated through these activities is used to help maintain your body temperature. The waste products that result are water and carbon dioxide. You excrete water primarily in urine and sweat and carbon dioxide in air exhaled from your lungs.
In my experience, the main reason I lost weight doing Bikram yoga is because I found myself craving different foods -- more fruit, less candy. I also, for the first time, "heard" the internal voice that let me know that I was full before I was actually stuffed.
ReplyDeleteThe chemistry is pretty unimportant. The yoga seems naturally to cultivate better living habits, and these in turn translate to lost weight, if that is appropriate.
Having said that, on one thing you are not correct. It takes extra energy to cool a body down in a heated environment. Using that extra energy leads to burning more calories as fuel. So just being in the hot room will cause people to burn more calories.
Ok - lets not forget also all the postures we do that help our liver, kidneys and muscles and metabolic systems do this process more efficiently!
ReplyDelete@ Ladiladida - Oh heck yes! All about the compression of that thyroid gland. CHIN TO CHEST, throat choked, eyes open, breathing normal!
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone! It's cool to see how the actual yoga class helps with weight loss. There's no doubt that you can burn a shit-ton of calories in the hot room. But there's also a huge mental and lifestyle component. SO much weight gain is emotional. Once the loose screws in your brain get tightened up, you start figuring out how to take care of your body ALL day long, not just in the yoga room! To quote the first Bikram book - "You get to feeling so gorgeous, you just can't LET yourself be fat anymore!"
Hi Duffy -- I get your point, but you make my point too: if you heat up the body (doing your own work from working, not just being in the room, then doesn't it follow that the body, in turn, works harder to cool it off-- therefore burning even more calories? Thanks for the correction, but I think you see my point too: I have seen people who don't get the results because they don't work the class. I like the mantra, "It works if you work it".
ReplyDeleteHi Duffy,
ReplyDeleteAs a former geek I totally disagree with you that the Chemistry is unimportant -- I think all the collective knowledge in our shared human experience is part of the picture -- and I think it's neat to know where fat actuallly goes -- maybe some people can't be bothered or care less -- but I am a curious person and thought I'd share this very easy to understand science in layperson's terms, from a very established source: The Mayo Clinic!
There's no doubt that you can burn a shit-ton of calories in the hot room. But there's also a huge mental and lifestyle component.It takes extra energy to cool a body down in a heated environment.
ReplyDeleteyoga
You state: "When you consume fewer calories than your body needs, your body turns to fat for energy. Your fat cells (triglycerides) provide the fuel for this energy."
ReplyDeleteThis is not strictly true. Evolution has ensured that the body tries to hold onto at least some level of fat store, as this can be more critical to survival than muscle in extreme circumstances. Therefore, if the body determines that it doesn't need muscle, it will break this down and use the muscle protein for energy in addition to fat. Therefore it is important to continue to challenge the muscles while in a calorie deficit to ensure that fat loss only is the result. Fortunately yoga is one good way to achieve this.
Thanks for the comment Mark. I think you're right about the loss of muscle, if one is calorie restricted without using them. However, I think the article was just focused on the state of what happens inside the body when you get to the place where it is fat burning: where do those fat cells go? I've heard people talking about fat cells "shrinking," and I do no think that is the case:they get converted into energy and the rest of it is released as waste in sweat and urine.
ReplyDeleteLost 30 pounds over 4 months with a regular Bikram practice, five times a week. Part muscle building, part calorie burn, part Loss of desire for junk foods. You need to keep it up to keep it off.
ReplyDeleteWow! This could be one of the most useful blogs we have ever come across on thesubject. Actually excellent info! I’m also an expert in this topic so I can understand your effort. https://www.surgeongate.org
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