Hot yoga perceptions and questions

[Fiddleman 4,376]

Hot yoga is a great exercise for improving mental clarity, elongating muscles, improving (dare I say, perfecting) balance and toning muscle. Notice I did not include calorie burning or weight loss into the list. I had the original perception that doing yoga poses at 105 degrees with increased humidity burns a mad amount of calories (600 or so). Heart rate is soaring, sweat is dripping off skin, yet all the research I have done online indicates that it is only Water weight that is being lost. Furthermore, the claim is that sitting in a hot room with sweat pouring off you in buckets does not increase the internal temperature of your body. I found these statements a little hard to believe.

Question: does hot yoga help you burn a mad amount of calories over 90 minutes or not?

Question: is losing 3-6 pounds of water doing hot yoga harmful to us as VSG post ops (considering at least 6 months after surgery)?

I also found that muscle definition decreases quite a bit the day after hot yoga. Intuition says this is just water being drawn out of the muscles. I want to continue to do 1 day of hot yoga on one of my rest days (sat, sun) for the benefits of toning, improved flexibility, balance and mobility ( not doing it to lose weight). My balance is actually fairly subpar at this point in time as demonstrated while holding one legged poses. Lots to work on there.

Question: is hot yoga contraindicated to the muscle building process that occurs on rest days?

Question: if the above question is answered with yes, does performing hot yoga actually result in loss of muscle growth or lean muscle progress?

Thanks for considering my questions. I do want the non weight loss benefits of hot yoga described above, but clearly do not want to niter free with strength building and muscle definition.

Thoughts?

[reyes33 18]

Great questions!! Ill be awaiting someone's response

[SlimDreams 175]

I'd really like to know the answers to your questions too..I had tried hot yoga two years ago, for a few months and while I couldn't hold half of those poises, I always walked out feeling so positive and invigorated...

[aliekat55 157]

i just heard that a friend of mine is really into hot yoga. to me this is beyond bizarre. i would consider yoga or a 105 degree room the entrance into hell, combine them?

Certainly if you heart is working harder there is some energy expenditure but nothing compare to when you use the major hip, back and leg muscles, so the caloric benefit has to be rather tiny for the effort wasted ( sorry I put a judgement in there, i mean well spent)

[FranWa 12]

Hi I did Bikram for one year before sleeve and it is awesome you divide your weight by the time you spend in the room and that is how many calories you loose .....sorry cant answer the other questions but I can't wait to get back into it I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I did...

[Fiddleman 4,376]

Hi I did Bikram for one year before sleeve and it is awesome you divide your weight by the time you spend in the room and that is how many calories you loose .....sorry cant answer the other questions but I can't wait to get back into it I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I did...

I assume you mean time spent is room is measured in hours and not minutes. For example, if my weight is approximately 180 lb and I divide by 90 minutes, the caloric burn is 2 where dividing by 1.5 hours is 120 calories. Even at 120 calories, that is like 5 minutes of fast running or 5 minutes of moderate elliptical for me. I guess this means that burning calories and losing weight is not to be the expected outcome of all that perceived effort of 90 minutes in the 105 temperatures. Fine with me, as I already stated I do not do it for the caloric burn, but for the improved flexibility, clarity and mobility. However, others should now you are not going to be burning a mad amount of calories doing hot yoga, even though you may feel like you are from the increased perceived effort.