Dealing with yogic philosophies and weight loss with yoga

Question

Past :

I used to weight train in the gym and looked close to shredded years back. I also meditated for a couple of months a couple of years back. I started reading things on Instagram and started falling into philosophies like synchronicity 11:11 chakras. Later I felt bad that I wasted time as I don't find them scientifically right and it feels aloof and goofy.

Present :

I am obese. I don't like going to the gym and lifting weights and eating a lot of protein anymore. So I decided to start yoga again.

I have started practising yoga under a guru. I love the classes and look forward to it every day. I told the guru that my goal is to lose fat.

The guru and the top disciples talk about synchronicity, no moon days draining energy and chakras. They ask me to eat whatever I want and be happy. I was hoping creating a calorie deficit will help me lose fat.

I don't know how to deal with the ideologies. I want to lose fat.

Answer 1

If you practice the pure Yoga as it is in some Ashrams, they take habit to wake up early to practice on an empty stomach.

This is supposed to help to burn fat since our body hasn't eat since many hours, our organism has to use the storage... the fat

In ashram they also pick a selection of vegatable and eat them fresh and cook (no ready-made processed food). This can also be a game-changer.

I would advise you to calculate your daily needs (maybe with an online tool like in https://www.verywellfit.com/how-many-calories-do-i-burn-every-day-3495464 ) From then only you will know how much calories to target. You have to be progressive otherwise the homeostatis will make you come back to your usual weight. Only reduce your normal caloric intake from 200KCal, for some weeks, until you reach a plateau. Then reduce again around 200KCal, and so on. You can do this for 3 months but after your body will need some rest and adapt Eventually your appetite will shrinken and it will be easy to maintain

Good luck !

Answer 2

You can do lots of sun- salutations. Try starting with 10 each morning, and increase with 5 each week, or similar -depending on where you are currently. After a few weeks you'll see some results. Remember to do them mindfully. This will according to the philosophy of yoga increase your agni- inner fire, and you'll digest and burn toxins in your body. It also goes with western philosophy in that you'll do fully body exercises that burn calories. With consistency results can be quite quick.

As mentioned above, a clean diet is probably also a good idea. Another good idea could be to do what's called a shank-prakshalana krya. This can clean the walls of the intestine from plaque and stuff so that they can absorb food you eat better, meaning you'll not have to eat as much since more nutrients per food intake will be absorbed. In the link above, they have a little different "after activities" prescribed than the ones I learned. I learned and felt good when I was doing the krya in the morning, fasted the rest of the day and then ate only Kitchari for three days.

Good luck with your continued practice.