Yoga Calories Burned Calculator
Yoga is a popular form of exercise that provides both physical and mental health benefits. There are different types of yoga and this tool will help you to approximate energy burned performing this therapeutic activity.
Calories Burned in Group Fitness Classes (Weight: 175lbs)
| MET | 15 mins. | 30 mins. | 45 mins. | 60 mins. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerobics | 6.6 | 138 | 275 | 413 | 550 |
| Pilates | 3 | 63 | 125 | 188 | 250 |
| Spinning | 7 | 146 | 292 | 438 | 583 |
| Tai Chi | 3 | 63 | 125 | 188 | 250 |
| Zumba | 6.5 | 135 | 271 | 406 | 542 |
| Yoga | 3 | 63 | 125 | 188 | 250 |
| Martial Arts | 10.3 | 215 | 429 | 644 | 858 |
| CrossFit | 5.6 | 117 | 233 | 350 | 467 |
| Bootcamp | 10.1 | 210 | 421 | 631 | 842 |
| Circuit Training | 7.2 | 150 | 300 | 450 | 600 |
| Aqua Aerobics | 3.2 | 67 | 133 | 200 | 267 |
What is The Yoga Calories Burned Calculator and How Does It Work?
This calculator measures the number of calories that someone burns doing yoga.
How does it do that?
Firstly, the calculator determines your metabolic rate or metabolism according to your weight.
What does that mean? Keep reading for a more detailed explanation.
If you take two people, one weighs 150 lbs and the other weighs 210 lbs, the person who weighs less will burn fewer calories during the same exact workout compared to the heavier individual.
Why is that?
A calorie is a unit of energy and a heavier person requires more energy to move their bodies or to perform activities.
Think of it like how a larger vehicle typically uses up more fuel than a smaller one. Weight affects fuel consumption (the amount of energy used).
But this also means that the heavier person expends more calories in a rested (non-exercising) state. This is also known as metabolic rate or metabolism.
The calculator uses a formula to approximate resting calories burned and then it factors in the duration and workout intensity to guesstimate calories burned.
How To Use The Yoga Calories Burned Calculator
The yoga calories burned calculator isn’t quite as simple to use compared to a lot of our other health tools. However, it’s certainly not difficult to navigate if you keep things simple.
To ensure an easy experience for you, we’ve included step-by-step instructions in detail below.
Step 1: Choose your preferred unit of measurement: Imperial (lbs, hours, and minutes) or metric (kilograms, hours, and minutes).
Step 2: Enter your weight.
Step 3: Enter the number of yoga hours (.e.g, 1, 2, 3, etc).
Note: You can also use values under an hour. For example, .5 would be thirty minutes and .25 would be fifteen minutes. Make sure to put 0 in the minutes box or just use the minutes box in this case.
Step 4: Enter the number of yoga minutes.
Note: Because there are 60 minutes in an hour, the max number of minutes that you can enter is 59. If the workout is under an hour, we recommend putting 0 in the hours box and entering the number of workout minutes only.
Step 5: Select the ‘yoga type’.
Tip: Click directly on the text (e.g., Ashtanga/power, Hatha, etc) and not on the empty gray circle. This will ensure you select the yoga type.
Step 6: Press Calculate!
What Are The Differences Between The Various Types of Yoga?
The calculator gives you the option to select from various forms of yoga. We’ve included them below with short descriptions in case you’re not familiar.
Hatha
What the general public imagines when they think of yoga. Hatha is a slower-paced branch of yoga that focuses on a variety of postures or poses combined with stretching, breathing, and meditation.
Ashtanga
Ashtanga is a style of yoga that gained much notoriety after being popularized by Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois during the 20 Century. It’s a challenging, high-energy variation of yoga that synchronizes breathing and movement.
“Ashtangis” have to complete a series of sequential yoga activities and the aim of this format is to heal the mind and body.
Power
Modeled after Ashtanga and considered a form of Vinyasa yoga, Power yoga is workout/fitness-focused. As a result, the primary benefits include increased cardio endurance and strength, plus all the other benefits of traditional yoga.
Second-generation Ashtanga students Bryan Kest from Los Angeles and New York-based Beryl Bender Birch are credited with developing and terming Power yoga. However, others have created their own versions of Power yoga such as Larry Schultz and Baron Baptiste.
Bikram/Hot
Bikram and hot yoga aren’t necessarily the same thing. While the former is considered the first original hot yoga, not all hot yoga is Bikram.
Hot yoga is performed in a heated room, usually set by the teacher to temperatures between 95 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Although, it can vary depending on variables such as the studio and teaching style.
The origin of performing yoga in a hot room was to replicate India’s climate. The proposed benefits include cleansing the body through excessive sweating and warming up the body and muscles to enhance the fluidity of movement.
Yoga champion Bikram Choudhury of Calcutta, India, was the founder of this system. He came to the US in 1971 and eventually opened a studio where he taught and it wasn’t long before this yoga style blew up in popularity and even attracted Hollywood stars.
Choudhury eventually came up with a 26-posture sequence based on writings done by B.C. Ghosh, 24 of which are asanas (posture techniques) and two are pranayama (breathing techniques).
Bikram’s story was a unique one, and while it may not be appropriate for discussion in this post, you can read the details regarding accusations against the instructor and his fleeing the US to India.
Vinyasa/Flow
Vinyasa flow is a form of yoga that involves focusing on breathing with movements and fluid transitions from one pose to another.
This style of yoga should be creative and enjoyable and there are no specific sequences of poses or number of postures. Many really like this format because it teaches them to be more creative, to think more clearly and calmly, and to develop a stronger trust in themselves.
It’s also faster-paced which is great for improving cardio, not to mention, it builds strength, requires focus, and helps to enhance breathing and mind-body coordination.
What Are The Benefits of Doing Yoga?
Oh, there are plenty! Hence why yoga is one of the most popular forms of exercise.
Trains the mind and may reduce stress, anxiety, and depression
Often called mind-body exercise, yoga incorporates meditation, breathing, focus, and physical exercise. As a result, it’s a great way to relieve stress and tension and relax the mind and body. Yoga has been shown to reduce cortisol, a stress hormone that in excess can wreak havoc on the body.
Not entirely convinced? There are actually studies to support the stress and anxiety-relieving effects of yoga.
Anxiety is a huge problem nowadays with everything going on in the world currently, in addition to personal struggles, social media, etc. Yoga can do a lot to reduce anxious thoughts.
Let’s look at one study of 64 women with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD (psychiatric issue caused by traumatic events).
After 10 weeks of once per week, hour-long yoga sessions, the women saw significant improvements “with effect sizes similar to well-researched psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological approaches” (1).
Additionally, 52% of women in the yoga group did not meet the criteria for PTSD anymore. The number was 21% in the control group.
A study of 130 volunteers with mild to moderate stress found that yoga has similar benefits on stress, anxiety, and overall health compared to relaxation (2).
There’s also a three-month study involving 24 emotionally distressed women that found yoga to significantly improve stress and well-being (3).
Because of the mental benefits, many see improvements in mood, sleep, and quality of life (4).
May reduce inflammation
Excess inflammation is associated with chronic diseases like cancers, heart disease, etc, that can lead to worse.
Some studies have found a reduction in inflammation (5, 6).
Great total-body workout
Many look at yoga as an easy activity but it’s anything but that. In fact, like resistance training and other forms of exercise, there are different levels and versions and it can be challenging even for the most physically fit individuals.
Having to balance, stabilize, and support your body weight in various positions is going to have positive effects on physical strength, coordination, and performance.
It’s also a great option for women (and men) who may not have much strength because they can start small and still build strength over time.
Related: Six Ways Yoga Can Improve Your CrossFit Performance
Burns Calories
While any yoga will burn calories, Hatha may burn the fewest as it’s slower-paced. It’s a great place to start though especially if you need to learn the art form before progressing to other variations.
Using the calculator, you’ll find that yoga types are ordered from least to most calories burned based on level of intensity (e.g., Least: Hatha, Ashtanga/Power, Bikram/Hot, Most: Vinyasa/Flow).
Could improve chronic pain
Nothing is worse than chronic pain ruining your plans.
Well, in one study of 42 people with carpal tunnel (numbness and tingling caused by a pinched nerve in the wrist), 8 weeks of yoga was more effective than splinting for improving some symptoms and signs of carpal tunnel (7).
Additionally, research has also shown that yoga can be beneficial for those with osteoarthritis of the knee (8).
Better breathing
Focused and controlled breathing (pranayama) is an essential component of yoga. It can help with lung capacity and function, even improving breathing issues associated with mild to moderate cases of asthma (9).
How Many Calories Can I Burn Doing Yoga?
The number of calories that you can burn during activity depends on a few different factors such as your weight, exercise intensity, and duration, or how long you perform the activity. Therefore, this can highly vary.
But that’s why we offer the yoga calculator, simply type in the required details and it’ll use a formula to determine the number of calories burned doing yoga.
However, we’ve provided a few examples of how our calculator will estimate calories burned.
According to the yoga calories burned tool, a 145 lb person who does an hour of Hatha yoga will burn 183 calories. That’s about 3.05 calories burned per minute.
The same person will expend 574 calories doing Vinyasa/flow for an hour. That’s 9.57 calories burned per minute.
But let’s say a 175 lb person did Hatha yoga for an hour. They will burn 221 calories. That’s estimated at 3.68 calories burned per minute.
As you can see, how many calories you can burn doing yoga or any activity for that matter, will depend on a few different factors.
Our calculator is designed to provide a reasonable estimate of energy expenditure during yoga activities.
Can Yoga Help Me To Lose A Lot of Weight?
Yoga is a great low-impact activity that can certainly contribute to the weight loss process.
But how much weight you lose really and truly depends on your overall habits and approach to your goals.
As long as you create a calorie deficit, and do it the healthy and proper way, you can lose weight.
It’s not a good idea to do hours of yoga exercise and not provide your body with essential nutrients. Many get carried away with exercise activities and neglect the nutrition side of things.
Plus, yoga requires energy to do especially the more intense forms.
How to lose weight with yoga the healthy way
You want to first determine your maintenance calories, and then reduce your calorie intake, exercise more, or do a combination of the two.
Use our weight loss calculator to determine the number of calories you should be taking in to lose weight.
If you also do resistance training (some yoga forms are strength-focused) and want to maximize muscle gain, strength increase, and muscle maintenance as you knock off the body fat, our macronutrient calculator is a very useful tool.
It’ll recommend an ideal protein, carbohydrates, and fat intake for you.
Read also: The Top 20 Simple Weight Loss Tips
If you’d also like to compare estimates of calories burned between yoga and various activities, we offer a free calculator that includes a database of over 250 different exercises and activities.
Yoga is Where It’s At!
Whether you’ve considered yoga or do it on a daily basis, we hope this article offered you some useful information that you can use to get the most from your yoga sessions.
There’s a lot to learn about this wonderful art and it’s totally worth it. Plus, if you want to burn some calories and shed some pounds while experiencing a stress-relieving activity, it makes for the perfect all-around low-impact option.
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