Are you trying to find a way to burn belly fat, without having to do intense exercises?

Or are you trying to reduce your waistline, but you don't want any dramatic lifestyle changes?

And maybe, you came across yoga and wanted to find out more...

I want to start off by saying that Yoga can indeed help you.

Yoga is as gentle as it gets and is proven to be an effective way to burn fat.

This ancient health practice can give you so many benefits, some of which we are still trying to understand today.

Among the many benefits of doing yoga are body toning and shaping.

If you ask me, that sounds pretty exciting!

If you want to know how yoga can help you burn belly fat, tone and shape your body, read on.

What Is Belly Fat?

Belly fat or abdominal fat, is the fat that's gathered around your belly, that's also covering some of your internal organs, and is what makes the waist bigger.

We are not talking about the layer of fat that's under the skin, which is what we usually refer to by fat.

Instead, we are talking about a different kind of fat layer, that's hard to reach, and lies behind, what's known as the abdominal wall.

This layer is known as Visceral Fat, and is what we mean when we say Belly Fat.

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Yoga is great because it can help you reduce your waistline by burning this hard-to-reach fat, as well as tone your core muscles.

Another thing about yoga is that it can also speed up your metabolism, which will allow you to accumulate lesser fat in your abdominal area and help you burn more calories, making you slimmer.

Let's take a closer look at what causes belly fat.

Causes Of Belly Fat

1. Poor Diet

One of the major causes of belly fat are ultra-processed foods, which are high in salt, unhealthy fats and sugars.

Fast foods and candies can count as ultra-processed foods as well.

What do you think will increase fat around the belly?

Eating something that's high in saturated fats

or

Eating something that's super sweet?

Think for a moment

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.

..

.....

.....

....

The answer is..

...

..

.....

Both...

Eating something that's high in saturated fats, can increase your weight - that's just common sense.

But many people are not aware of how highly processed sugary foods can also add more pounds.

It's very simple.

After you eat something high in added sugars, your body converts it into glucose, and that glucose, gets stored as fat in fatty tissues — including the ones in and around your belly.

It gets stored there, until it's required by the body to be used as energy again.

So, yes.

Sugar doesn't just give you energy, it can store energy as fat, when you don't use it.

These ultra-processed foods can contribute to hormonal imbalances, obesity and even type 2 diabetes.

Avoiding consumption of ultra-processed foods has shown to reduce weight and improve health.

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A balanced diet, that includes a good amount of proteins, can make you feel full, and less hungrier than usual.

It can also help you reduce your cravings.

The main advantage of keeping a balanced diet is that you can control your intake of ultra-processed foods, which can then allow you to accumulate less fat.

In turn, your metabolism becomes faster and more balanced, which helps you shed the pounds more easily.

Helps In Building Muscle

What happens if you don't eat after a workout?

During a workout, your muscles get micro-tears.

Having a good and balanced meal helps ensure that your body gets enough energy and nutrition, to refuel and recover after working out.

Whole carbs like fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains etc. are essential for refueling the body with energy.

Proteins, on the other hand, can help your muscles repair the micro-tears from working out.

It doesn't just repair your muscles, it rebuilds them and makes them stronger.

Improves Mental Function

A Well balanced diet that includes whole foods, healthy fats and proteins can improve mental function.

Whole foods, being a great source for good carbs, helps improve the energy levels of your brain.

Likewise, healthy fats, such as Omega 3, are essential for healthy and improved brain activity.

Proteins are essential for neural health.

Having good neural health is important for your cognitive functions, such as concentration and memory.

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Not only is a well-balanced diet important your brain's health and function, it can also indirectly help improve your overall physical health as well, which can be powerful for losing weight.

Studies have shown that not having enough of certain essential nutrients can lead to mental illnesses such as depression.

Getting adequate and proper nutrition can help improve your moods, and this in turn, can improve and balance your body's hormones.

When your hormonal levels get balanced, your metabolism improves, which helps you burn more calories and reduce weight.

2. Stress

Stress has been on the rise worldwide.

There are many causes for stress, some of the most common being work-related stress and social problems.

Undergoing stressful situations can indirectly increase belly fat.

When you undergo a stressful situation, a hormone called “Cortisol” gets released.

Higher levels of cortisol can increase your blood sugar levels.

Essentially, what happens is that it shuts down other body functions temporarily, like digestion, and activates processes that will make you feel like doing intense physical activities.

Your blood sugar increases because of this, as your pancreas releases energy, which was stored as fat, into your bloodstream.

As cortisol makes you use up your body's stored energy, you start craving foods high in fats and sugar. Eating such foods can increase belly fat.

In this way, stress indirectly increases belly fat.

It's important to keep stress under control.

Yoga involves meditation & relaxation techniques, which can help you reduce stress and anxiety.

3. Lack Of Sleep

If you are not getting enough sleep, this can change the way your hormones work, and one of the side effects of this change is weight gain.

There are many hormones that become altered when you're not able to sleep well.

Just as with stress, lack of sleep can increase your cortisol levels, and can lead to the very same effects I talked about above with regard to stress.

Other hormones, such as Leptin, become altered too.

Leptin is what's responsible for making you feel satisfied or full.

Having more leptin can keep you less hungry and more satisfied.

But when you don't get enough sleep, leptin becomes decreased, making you feel hungrier.

Less leptin can make you crave for more foods, which can indirectly lead to unhealthy weight gain.

This is one of the ways how poor sleep can lead to belly fat.

If you want to be healthy and at your best, getting at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep is essential.

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There are so many reasons why many of us may not be getting enough sleep at night.

One of the biggest reasons, especially today, is our overuse of smartphones right before we go to bed.

The light, to be more specific, blue light, from our smartphones' screen signals our brain to stay awake.

Blue light can decrease the production of a hormone called melatonin, which is what makes us feel sleepy.

When your melatonin levels go down, you don't feel like sleeping.

I've had this problem, but I figured out a way to solve it.

You may or may not know this, but there are apps or phone settings that you can use to block blue light from your phone screen.

If you're not using these settings, I recommend you try it for at least a week, and you should probably notice a difference in your sleep.

Another reason why you may find it hard to sleep can be because of noise.

Remove all unnecessary and noisy items at home that's interrupting your sleep.

If the noise is coming from the outside, you can use soft ear-plugs while you sleep.

Another reason for not getting enough sleep can be that we love to keep plans after midnight.

Although that can be fun and exciting, it can also deprive you of good quality sleep, which can negatively impact your health.

Taking steps to improve your sleep can help you prevent belly fat.

4. No Exercise

Another common cause of belly fat is not getting enough exercise.

Doctors recommend normal adults to have regular physical activity in order to stay healthy.

Even 30 minutes of doing brisk walking can help you improve your health in many ways.

A lack of exercise can cause hormonal imbalances that can lead to increased weight gain.
There's a simple science to it.

Your body stores up energy in the form of fats.

When you don't have any physical activities, those fats remain stored in your body.

Because of this, the fat can affect how the cells of your body - specifically on how your cells absorb energy.

Too much fat (lipids to be exact) can affect the effectiveness of insulin — which is the hormone that signals your cells to absorb energy from your bloodstream.

When there's too much fat, the cells can't “listen” to the insulin.

What happens then, is that it starts to increase your blood sugar, and can possibly lead to Type 2 Diabetes.

But when you do physical activities, even something as simple as walking, your body starts to burn fat.

The fat gets converted into energy, meaning, the fat that was stored in your body reduces, which in turn helps your insulin to balance your blood sugar levels better.

Why Belly Fat Is Bad For You

Belly fat is linked to Type-2 Diabetes.

The liver is what stores energy after you've consumed food.

Insulin is what gets the liver to store glucose.

The more insulin you have, the more sugar gets stored in your liver.

What belly fat can do is that it can obstruct the liver from “listening” to the insulin, and store less glucose.

This can leave your blood sugar levels high, making it a risk for Type-2 Diabetes.

How Yoga Can Help You

Yoga, a practice with ancient roots, is beneficial for a healthy life, even in modern times.

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Its combination of physical, mental & relaxation techniques are effective in preventing and treating chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, anxiety & depression.

Let's take a closer look at how Yoga can help you.

Effective For Burning Belly Fat

To burn fat, your body has to consume more energy.

You can make this happen through exercise.

Let me explain how this works.

After you eat, the food gets stored in your body in three major forms — carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

All three forms can be converted into energy for your body when you want to do some physical task.

But they get converted in different levels.

Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy for your body.

Your body converts carbohydrates into energy, which goes into your blood stream and gets absorbed by the cells of your body.

The next source of energy is fat.

Fat gets "burned", after being converted into your body's fuel.

There are Asanas that are intense enough that your body will burn fat.

Helps Increase Metabolism

Yoga can help improve your metabolism.

If you haven't got a clue what metabolism means, let me explain.

When you eat food, your body digests it and converts it into much smaller parts, at the microscopic level.

It does this while it converts the food into fuel or energy, or into proteins which will support all the muscles, organs etc.

This whole process of converting food into things that are useful for your body, is what metabolism is all about.

When your metabolism is slower, your body tends to store unused energy as fat.

This can lead to weight gain.

But when your metabolism speeds up, you tend to accumulate less fat, even when you are resting.

Doing yoga regularly has been shown to help speed up metabolism.

The physical techniques of yoga triggers your body to make use of available energy, that's being stored as fat.

This helps increase the fat-burning process which will help you lose weight.

Great For Improving Body Shape

Toning is all about improving the shape and look of your muscles.

In order to tone your muscles, it all comes down to burning fat.

As your weight gets reduced, you'll start to notice that your muscles are starting to look leaner and also have better definition.

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The poses or asanas in yoga, specifically the ones that involve stretching and balancing using your body weight, can help you burn fat in areas such as your abdomen and legs.

This is the way that yoga improves your body's shape, as well as your posture.

More Gentle Than Traditional Exercises

The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is responsible for making your body more physically active to help you prepare for extreme situations like escaping dangerous threats.

Traditional intensive exercises tend to activate the SNS.

Continuously activating SNS is going to be bad for your body in the long term.

It can do damage to your overall mental and physical well being.

Yoga, on the other hand, is more gentle, and has been shown to activate the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

The PNS stimulates your body to relax and digest.

This is far more beneficial and healthier than activating your SNS through traditional intensive exercises.

Yoga activates the PNS in your body through its combination of physical, relaxation & meditation techniques.

Helps Balance Cortisol Levels

Yoga helps you balance your cortisol levels, which can allow you to maintain normal metabolism levels.

Having balanced cortisol helps your thyroid glands to function well.

Good thyroid function helps maintain your metabolism, but when your cortisol levels go out of balance, it affects the thyroid, and that in turn slows down your metabolism.

Yoga has been proven to help balance cortisol levels.

Just doing even 10 to 15 minutes of yoga can make you feel so relaxed and calm, and regular yoga sessions can help you balance your cortisol levels in the long-run.

Helps In Preventing Illnesses

Today, people are using Yoga to prevent & treat various illnesses, including serious one's such as diabetes and obesity.

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Yoga has been proven to help reduce symptoms of diseases such as back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and even arthritis.

If you're trying to prevent or treat an illness, chances are, Yoga can help you improve your condition.

The Effectiveness Of Yoga

Regular Yoga practice has been proven to improve the body in many ways - from the physical level, all the way to the emotional levels.

If you want to save yourself time & effort, having an effective means to a better health is important.

Let's look at how Yoga is effective and helps you achieve more.

1. Asanas Target Belly Fat Pretty Well

Certain Asanas (poses) have been shown to be effective in strengthening and toning the abdominal muscles, as well as burn belly fat, more effectively than the traditional crunches.

In traditional intensive exercises, you will have to put in a lot of work, and the results may not always be good enough.

And that's not all...

Because of how intense it can get, you may be putting yourself at a high risk for injury.

In Yoga, you don't have to worry about becoming stressed out, or even about serious injuries, since it's a lot more gentle and beginner-friendly.

There are Asanas that can target the belly fat better than what traditional intensive exercises can.

Cat Pose With Variation. Photo by Li Sun from Pexels

The layer of fat, that's often most difficult to target, is the visceral fat, which stays behind the abdominal wall.

Yoga targets this layer of fat really well, and with very little effort.

So, with yoga, not only will you be able to have a more safer and enjoyable workout, but it's also a more effective workout.

2. Helps Strengthen Core Muscles

The Asanas help strengthen your core muscles, which include your abdominal muscles.

This can help you improve your posture.

Having good posture is very important.

It can help you reduce stress in certain areas of your body, such as your lower back, legs and spine.

Imagine being able to stand tall, with full confidence, effortlessly.

When you correct your posture, it will help you to naturally improve the way you stand, sit and walk.

3. Can Boost Your Mind

What's interesting is that Yoga meditation is scientifically proven to help reduce stress, treat anxiety and depression. (source)

Research has shown that yoga helps people with improving cognitive functions such as memory and thinking skills. Also, Yoga can help prevent Alzheimer's. 

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Yoga can also give your brain a boost.

Its been scientifically proven to enhance your cognitive functions, meaning it helps you to focus and is good for your memory.(source)

Yoga can give you the brain power to help you make better decisions, do great at your job and bring out more of your inner creativity.

These positive effects on your mind helps balance your hormones, which in turn, will help you reduce weight.

What Do You Need To Start Yoga

Yoga is gentle & easy, compared to many other forms of exercises.

You don't need expensive or special equipment to start.

All you need is a quiet room, away from any distractions, and a yoga mat.

No matter what age, or what level of fitness you're at, you can start yoga at anytime.

An important thing to note is that, before you start any exercise plan, including yoga, its always a great idea to get the doctors' ok.

Yoga, in a way, is also about improving your confidence.

Checking with your doctor if yoga is suitable for you, will help you feel more confident in what you're doing.

I hope this helped you understand what yoga is all about.

If you enjoyed reading this blog post, let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you.