International Yoga Day 2025: Can only doing yoga help you lose the pounds?

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Interestingly, it has also become the go-to routine for a whole lot of people in their 30s and 40s who have never been too enthusiastic about working out but feel pressured to do so owing to an increased awareness about the direct link between an active life and better health. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that a number of people from this group believe that yoga will help them lose weight in addition to impacting their health and wellbeing. Most yoga instructors and teachers outright dismiss the idea that yoga alone can help shed weight. They, however, agree that it could help with weight management i.e. help you stay within your current weight range.

Weight was never a concern in ancient yoga practice, says Dr Karthik Kashyap, a Bengaluru-based yoga instructor who holds a Ph.D. in yoga from Mangalore University. “Yoga was primarily focused on maintaining good health of the seven dhatus or the seven fundamental bodily tissues. Yoga may not cause significant weight loss without dietary changes or additional exercise. It could, however, help maintain your current weight by improving mindfulness, reducing stress, supporting metabolism and encouraging consistent physical activity," says Kashyap.  

Abhishek Sharma, a Mumbai-based celebrity yoga instructor and author of Fitness on the Go, is very clear that yoga alone does not lead to weight loss. “Yoga needs to be combined with other workouts such as cardio or playing a sport if one’s primary goal is weight loss. That one will have to make changes to their diet and eat healthier and cleaner is a given," says Sharma, who admits to getting a lot of requests from people to help them lose weight. “The yoga instructor has to strike a fine balance so that clients can reap the benefits of yoga along with other complimentary workouts," he adds. 

Bengaluru-based yoga teacher Srivalli Cherla concurs with Sharma. In a previous conversation with Lounge, Cherla, founder of Samsara Yoga, had said that while it was “theoretically possible" to lose weight with yoga alone, the process is guaranteed to be extremely slow. “Also, weight loss can be made possible only with certain forms of yoga that are cardio-intensive such as power yoga, a dynamic practice where you move through postures very quickly, and Vinyasa Yoga, a combination of the dynamic and static forms where you hold asanas slightly longer before proceeding to the next," says Cherla, adding that if weight loss is the primary goal, it is best to add other forms of exercises to your routine as well as focus on eating better. 

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Concurrently, there are some yoga experts who believe that yoga can contribute to weight loss. Divya Rolla, a yoga expert at Cult Fit, is one of them. She says a well-rounded yoga practice can lead to weight loss but there is a caveat. “Leading a yoga-prescribed lifestyle in its entirety is what will help you with sustained weight loss."  According to Rolla, a yoga-prescribed lifestyle encompasses physical, mental, and spiritual practices to promote the overall well-being of a person.  

Most people view yoga only as the physical asana practice, which is just a small part of the complete yoga system, she says. “Physical practices of a yoga-prescribed lifestyle include doing asanas and pranayama (breath control) regularly. Pranayama regulates breathing and calms the mind. Mental and emotional practices include meditation, mindfulness, self-reflection and introspection. A regular examination of thoughts, emotions, and actions leads us to live with intent," she explains. 

Kashyap, too, is a proponent of a concept similar to Rolla’s “yoga-prescribed lifestyle" but calls it “integral yoga". It includes asanas, pranayama and multiple other cleansing techniques. Integral yoga when combined with Mithahara (moderate diet), can aid weight loss, says Kashyap. He agrees with Cherla that yoga forms such as Vinyasa yoga, asana flows and Suryanamaskaras (sun salutations) are more efficient for weight loss rather than static yoga asanas alone. But to see best results and significant change on the scales, it is best to combine yoga with other exercises and better eating habits. 

A comprehensive approach to weight management requires more than just one form of exercise, insists Rolla. “The pillars of weight management are actually pretty straight-forward and yoga shows the way for achieving it: mindful eating, daily exercise and movement, which helps preserve and build muscle, deep and restful sleep, keeping our stress levels to a minimum and ensuring that our hormones and our organs are in peak form," says Rolla. 

If you are among those who include yoga in their multi-modal weight loss regimen, you are likely to enjoy the primary benefits of yoga. On the physical level, yoga builds strength and flexibility in equal parts in our bodies. “Flexibility is, perhaps, the first thing that comes with yoga. A good yoga practice helps enhance flexibility by allowing your muscles to go deeper into a stretch. And with improved flexibility, you get to lead a pain-free life. Yoga also helps build tremendous strength, stamina and balance," says Rolla. 

Rolla claims that yoga leads to your brain cells developing new connections. “Changes occur in brain structure as well as function resulting in improved cognitive skills, such as learning and memory. Yoga strengthens parts of the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, awareness, thought, and language. Think of it as weightlifting for the brain," she says. 

Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor and the co-author of The Shivfit Way, a book on functional fitness.

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