3 Best Yoga Poses for Weight Loss

1. Boat Pose - Navasana

This is one of the seated poses of yoga that helps not only in weight loss but in building up of stamina and determination too.

Sit in the staff pose with hands beside the hips and legs stretched in front.
Now bring your knees close to your chest and feet resting on the floor.
Maintain your body as vertical as possible and try lifting your feet and bring the shin parallel to the floor.
Now stretch your arms forward and slightly lean back.
While doing this slightly stretch your legs forward too.
This builds strength in the abdomen and also flattens it.

2. Extended side angle pose - Utthita Parsvakonasana

This is one of the best yielding types of yoga exercise for weight loss and it also helps in bringing a shape to your body.

Stand with your legs one foot of distance apart and hands on your sides.
Now keeping in position, turn your right about 90 degrees and left foot for about 45 degrees.
After exhaling, bend your right knee with the thighs parallel to the ground.
Your knee must be in line with the first two toes and not more than that.
Now inhale. Lift your arms parallel to the floor and extend your arms with shoulder blades wide and palms facing down.
Keep your shoulders away from your ears.
Exhale and incline your body towards the right side and place your right hand on the outside of the right foot and stretch your left arm upward and in line with your body.
Your neck and spine must be in line with each other and your gaze in front of you.
Hold this position for about 30 seconds and slowly release your left arm, right and then your knees.

3. Half moon pose Ardha Chandrasana

This weight loss yoga pose helps in building focus and also opens up the hip.

You start from a low lunge position, with your hand resting on your hip.
Transfer your weight to your front foot and have your back lifted in a way that is parallel to the floor.
Have your body in a parallel position with arms directly under the shoulder and fingers touching the ground.
Now slowly roll your hip, belly and shoulders one by one and lift the other arm straight upward and your face must look upward too.

How Yoga Helps You Lose Weight

The major problems that can occur during weight loss, especially if a person has a high-stress full-time job to worry about on the side, are mental and physical fatigue and comfort eating.

It is not uncommon for person with a full time-job to become mentally exhausted and/or bored at work, to be stressed out and get very little sleep.

All these factors are causes of fatigue and coupled with a limited diet that often leaves a person feeling a little hungry (and therefore grumpy) and exhaustion from exercise can lead to additional stress, thus locking a person in a self-perpetuating circle of tiredness and irritability.

This is where yoga comes into play. Yoga can help you:

Control nervous and comfort eating - studies have shown that we eat more when we are feeling a bit blue or nervous and yoga has been shown to improve mood and decrease anxiety, effectively helping nervous and comfort eaters keep their unhealthy habit under control.
Decrease recovery time so you can exercise more frequently - yoga is great way to stretch out tendons and relax the muscles after a workout, as well as getting your heart rate under control through breathing. These are all important factors in decreasing recovery time and making you less sore the day after.
Get to sleep - ten to twenty minutes of yoga at night can help relax the muscles and lower the heart rate bringing the body into to a calm, resting state, while another ten minutes of meditation can help ease the mind, slamming the brakes on those restless thoughts rushing through the head and keeping you awake.

A nice warm shower and a yoga session accompanied by some relaxing music will get you to sleep in no time (I've been known to drowse of in the lotus position, waking up on the floor the next morning).
Improve focus and motivation - dieting and exercising on a regular basis takes some strong willpower and sufficient motivation. Yoga can help strengthen your resolve and increase your confidence by giving you a different outlook on life and calming you critical inner voice.

4 Types of Yoga

1. Mantra Yoga

Japa yoga is a method of chanting mantras and slogans that creates a vibration in and around the body thus reflecting the results from within.

Mantra yoga has originated from Vedic science that is linked with Tantra; Mantra yoga is completely the practice of chanting of Vedas written years back at the ancient times. The ultimate salvation or the union with the supreme universal consciousness is the eventual goal of mantra yoga.

2. Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti Yoga is a form of practicing sheer faith and devotion towards ones interest on God the almighty or the supreme consciousness, the power. Usually Bhakti yoga is experienced along with the worship of God be it Lord Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Mohammad or Shakti who is considered as the sole power or Guru according to their choice.

The main picture of this yoga is the strong emotional bond with an objective of faith. This flow of emotional energy is effective when directed towards the object of faith thus purifying the inner self at once. Self realization, relief from pain, ego and uncertainty are the resulting factor of this yoga.

3. Kundalini Yoga

This type of yoga is concerned about the stimulation of the chakras or the psychic centers of the body. Every individual has six main chakras that are evenly distributed from the head down to the end of the spinal cord.

Mind is made off different layers that are responsible for various consciousnesses which are dependent on different chakras. The basic factor about this yoga is that it awakens these chakras with deep concentration. Kundalini yoga for back pain is more effective with the cleansing techniques they follow.

4. Raja Yoga

This yoga is described in the yoga sutras of sage Patanjali in ancient texts with eight stages which is collectively called the raja yoga. Raja yoga deals with refinement of the human deeds and personality with the practice of yamas (restraint) and niyamas (disciplines).

This results in good physical health and dynamism from the asanas and Pranayama (breathing techniques) that manages emotional conflicts with the development of awareness. Pratyahara (sensory withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption towards universal identity) are some of the other yoga that comes under raja yoga.

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