Calories burned doing hot yoga?
In my activity log, i just entered hatha yoga which only burns about 140 calories an hour. I'd think that hot yoga is a lot more strenuous though. Does anybody have an idea as to how many calories i would burn doing 90 minutes of hot yoga?
i'm 16 y/o female, 5'6, small frame and about 124lbs
I just finished a 90 minute hot hatha yoga class and my heart rate monitor shows I burned 609 calories.
Original Post by trudyburch:
I just finished a 90 minute hot hatha yoga class and my heart rate monitor shows I burned 609 calories.
Heart rate monitors cannot accurately estimate calories burned for any type of yoga, esp "hot" yoga. The only time they are even close to being accurate is during steady-state aerobic exercise. They cannot be used for strength training, HIT, HIIT, activities of daily living, yoga, pilates, etc.
Considering the amount of men in the military that have insane bodies in my hot vinyasa flow yoga class, I would consider this an insane workout. Def worth the 90 minutes because you feel great after. In my experience, those who are used to lifting weights or running long distances benefit most from this class because it challenges their bodies to be flexible and work with different muscle groups in a different environment. I do hot vinyasa flow in addition to cross training and long-distance running. Keep the body guessing:)
While it may not seem that hot yoga would have the same work out as military training it really does. I do vinyasa as well as other types of yoga and they have been very beneficial. Pilates are very good for the body too because in Pilates you work 640 body muscles at one time. The human body has aprox 640 muscles in it,
Original Post by dietwarrior:
I was a big yoga fan, for over 15 years when I decided to try Bikram. What a BAD mistake. It is a joke, McDonald's Yoga is right!
I finished their 'challenge' doing 50 sessions in a row (every day) and instead of feeling better and looking better, I was becoming a shadow and plainly sick. I ended up in a hospital. Nice Dr. who also once upon the time went to bikram said that the health risks are so great that he wonders why that yoga is even legal. He said that even sitting in a sauna will burn 800 calories but the fact of the exercise is to make muscles work, not trying to win against the heat. Also he said that people somehow suspend the common knowledge NOT TO GO OUT IN A HEAT. So be it, if you wish to kill yourself be my guest. The only muscle you will work is heart and it will work too hard and hate you for it. The calories 'lost' will get replenished as soon as you consume 3 glasses of water. And the benefits of the exercises - none. Yoga is a strech, and bikram is a disaster.
If you want to lose weight watch your diet, do cardio in a healthy way, which means to sweat in a normal temperature. Hiking, cycling, speed walking, low impact aerobics, rebounder. If you really wish to do yoga do Ashtanga or Vinyasa, both 100000000000000000000 superior to that freak Bikram. Yeah, the guy is a complete sociopath and if you want to be sheeple go ahead, it will be more room on this planet after you crock.
And yeah, I really now shy away from yoga being though this experience. It is really sick that these money greedy a#$%^^ destroy good thing in a name of money and novelty.
This is ridiculous. First, just b/c you had a bad experience doesn't mean it's bad for everyone. Sounds to me like you just weren't taking care of yourself and were malnourished and dehydrated. Second, why do you put 'lost' in quotes? Are calories not burned while performing the activity? Yes, they are. Third, 3 glasses of water contain zero calories so you're not getting the calories lost back from drinking H2O [wow...]. Fourth, when done correctly [and watching the rest of your health] Bikram can be a 'healthy way' to do cardio. Fifth, it's croak not crock. Sixth, I have been performing Bikram for about six years [off and on] and consider it to be one of the best workouts I've ever done. Period. And I've done a lot of different activities including but not limited to biking, hiking, racquet ball, squash, volleyball, basketball, swimming, triathlon, running, Pilates, standard cardio, circuit training, heavy weight lifting, Boot Camps, etc. etc. etc. Seventh, don't attack someone by calling them names like 'sociopath' when you have no idea of their mental condition.
While I'm here, I also want to comment on when people just spout off how many calories are burned doing an exercise as n calories. It's just ludacris to throw out a blanket number to represent all people! "You'll burn 500 calories in an hour of Bikram!" Really? You know my body physiology? You know how hard I'm going to work? You know how much I weigh? How tall I am? How old I am? No, you don't. So don't throw out random numbers as fact.
It depends on the kind of hot yoga being performed. At the studio I go to, each teacher has a different style. I took my heart monitor in there for the first time today and had the teacher who does hatha/yin yoga. During this 60 minute hot hatha yoga class, my monitor said I burned 206 calories. I'm 5'5 and 127lb (female). It also said that most of the time I was in the 'fat burning' zone rather than 'cardio' (heart rate was at a lower intensity). I do push myself during yoga but this style has you hold poses a lot longer so I think that's why my heart rate wasn't in the cardio zone (as opposed to some styles which make you move through poses very quickly).
Hope that helps!
I've read these forums on hot yoga before, and I have to say that in my experience hot yoga IS a great weight loss tool. If it's a difficult class such as Bikram taken several times a week, WITHOUT cheating (don't use those knees in plank!), you will see major results. I had major success without changes in my diet or lifestyle. The heat makes you more flexible and therefore better able to achieve the full benefits of the poses. It also definitely does increase your heart rate and make your body expend more energy during the poses. While I can't comment on calories burned, I would say that anyone who suggests that a cool Hatha class is on par with a hot ashtanga or Bikram has probably not done both regularly. I have, and there is a major difference in not only the perception of fitness, but my actual fitness. It's only personal, anecdotal evidence, but nothing else about my lifestyle has changed and my body (and fitness) has. The key is to avoid cheating and to actually force your body to work in each pose. I don't know very many overweight yogis, and I don't know ANY overweight hot yogis. There is a correlation between people who practice yoga regularly and other healthy habits, so that on its own is not enough to say it works; however, in my case at the very least, I lost a lot of weight over time and am stronger and healthier than I have been in years. So, give it a try knowing that you're doing your body some serious good!!!
