Can Yoga Help to Lose Weight?

My Story

I lost 11 kgs in a period of 3 months. The result was good as my upper and mid abs were visible (4 pack) also my jawline was visible after 8 years. I started my career 4 years ago and was too much into professional life and I had almost neglected my diet and I was surprised when I looked into the mirror, I used to be the fittest guy in school and college and never thought that this can happen to me. Then I realized this was a result of 4 years of neglect in diet, sleep, and stress and I had to be in control from now. I had studied yoga in my School, the books mainly on methods by Dhirendra Brahmachari. He was the yoga guru of Indira Gandhi. Later I read BKS Iyengar's Books one on Yoga and one exclusively for Pranayama. Yoga can definitely help you to lose weight.

Photo Vs Mirror

Seeing yourself in the mirror daily causes you to neglect any change in your body. To see your present status you need to look at your full body photograph. Many people do not realize how overweight they have become until they look at the photo. I never realized that I was overweight until I saw a photo of mine taken by a friend recently. I decided it is time to lose weight and get healthy or face the consequences in the coming time, I had no choice.

The Strategy

The main reason for weight loss was intermittent fasting 5:2, here you eat 5 days normally and for 2 days you reduce your calorific intake generally to 600 calories for men and 500 calories for women (It is about metabolic rate!). Those 2 days were really difficult in the first few weeks, especially when your friends and colleagues are eating around you all the time. One main thing is that you should not compensate for the deficit created by eating more than what you usually eat on those remaining 5 days. After few weeks intermittent fasting became natural to me and I felt more energetic and satiated even after lesser calorific intake. Surprisingly the energy level on the fasting days was surprising, I guess it was more of a psychological aspect.

The Experience

Yoga really helped me in controlling my cravings on those 2 days and not to overindulge on the remaining days. I believe that to lose weight the calorific deficit produced by Yoga is very less compared to the cardio (Also can you perform Suryanamaskar for more than 10 mins and follow this continuously for a month ?). The main thing I felt is the mind control which I got from performing yoga daily.

Conclusion

Yoga can definitely help in mind control which has a direct effect on calorie control which is the main factor to lose weight.  It can also help in improving your sleep which will improve your hormonal aspect. In the end, even if you do Yoga for hours daily, or run 10K daily you will only gain weight if you don't control your nutrition. But if you keep your calorie deficit you will definitely lose weight.

Disclaimer:
All the views here are personal. Consult your physician before starting any kind of weight loss program.