Does yoga help you lose weight?

[stormymcstormface]

Would yoga help? I'm doing two classes a week when I can but wondered if I need another class? Cardio? Legs, bums and tums?

Fast yoga /piyo / pilates can help if you do it 3-4 times a week. Fast is quick and continuous movement from one pose to another often to music - it should leave you sweaty and breathless. Normal Yoga by itself doesn’t have weight loss benefits; but it can help to strengthen your core and tighten up your belly and hips

It's very hard to exercise off weight (you need to change how you eat for that).

Yoga is great for flexibility, general toning and some strength.

If you want to try to outrun your weight (IYSWIM) then you might be better off actually running (try C25K if you're a beginner) or any of the many cardio classes.

It depends what you are doing, lots of fast flow, or asanas that work as body weight exercises, will yes, and will speed up your metabolism as you build muscle. If it's more of a very gentle stretching class then not so much, but still extremely good for you.

You could think about throwing in a couple of body weight based HIIT sessions a couple of times a week, which, with healthy eating, will knock weight off quickly. Also super easy to do at home, no equipment needed.

No

Look at your diet and the sugar / carbs you are eating. If your diet consists of 40-50% carbs a day, yoga will make not one jot of difference to your weight.