Losing weight through yoga sounds almost too good to be true. On the surface, yoga seems like the polar opposite of a fast-paced high-intensity interval training (HIIT) circuit or a strength training workout, the two kinds of exercise usually recommended for weight loss. But yoga goes beyond burning calories. It leaves your body feeling energised instead of wiped out, loose instead of tight and flexible instead of sore. However, if weight loss is your goal here's how you should structure your yoga workout to burn the maximum calories.

Create a Calorie Deficit

The first step is to create a calorie deficit. Set your calorie range by multiplying your body weight by 10 to 12. Your caloric intake should fall somewhere within these numbers. Even if it requires some tweaking, this is a good starting point. Once you start seeing a difference in your weight, adjust your calorie numbers accordingly. But remember that this isn't a one-size-fits-all type of thing. It will take some trial and error to figure out what ultimately works for you!

Warm-Up!

Warming up will get your blood circulating throughout your body. Slowly loosen up typically tight areas such as the hips, hamstrings, and lower back with simple dynamic stretches like shoulder rotation, hip rotation, head rotation, and knee rotation. This is the best time to exercise to lose weight. 

Break Into the Vinyasa Flow

When it comes to calorie burn, nothing beats vinyasa. Vinyasa flow is composed of three different yoga poses – the downward dog pose, the cobra pose and the plank pose. The sequence starts with the downward dog pose. Keep your knees on the floor and place your palms under the shoulders with the spine relaxed. Exhale and push your hips towards the ceiling as you straighten your knees. Your body should form an inverted V-shape. Breathe normally and hold this pose for five breaths. Now, lower your hips. Keeping the pelvis on the floor, lift your chest off the floor to get into cobra pose. Take slow deep breaths and then relax your spine and align it to achieve the plank position. Hold the poses for longer as you move through the flow to boost your calorie burn.

Scale Up Gradually

If you are new to yoga, take a couple of weeks to build up your experience and let your body adjust. As your skill and your fitness increases, you can gradually increase the intensity level of the yoga that you are doing.  Once you start feeling more comfortable, go for vinyasa class three to four times a week, eventually working your way up to 90-minute sessions at the same frequency. If you are just doing yoga for weight loss, a minimum of three to four classes per week that are at least 60 minutes long is essential. Also, try these 5 fat-burning yoga poses for weight loss. 

Finish With Kapalbhati Pranayam

This breathing exercise helps oxygenate your body while strengthening the muscles of your stomach and abdomen. It also helps in giving you that flat toned tummy and melt away love handles. Sit comfortably on your yoga mat. Keep your spine erect and your palms on your knees facing downwards. Now exhale through your nose and pull your stomach in towards your spine. When you loosen your stomach muscles you will automatically breathe in. Quickly contract your stomach muscles again and exhale. Your stomach muscles should be doing the work of pushing out and pulling in air. Do this initially about 50 times, you can increase the number of repetitions as you feel comfortable.

The congruence between mindfulness on and off of the mat is what can make yoga more effective for weight loss than other forms of exercise.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 27, 2019 04:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).