10 Simple Yoga Asanas to Lose Weight For Beginners

When you start exercising, your brain recognizes it as a moment of stress. You recognize it as the moment where you need to push yourself to get results. Your heart pressure slowly starts increasing. Your brain thinks you are in a fight or flight situation. As a result, it releases a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor).

BDNF has a protective, reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. This is the reason why you feel at ease, clear, and happy after exercising. Moreover, endorphins are also released when you exercise, another chemical that fights stress.

A feeling of calmness encompasses you when you are done exercising. However, not everyone enjoys this kind of training method.

Some people enjoy training sessions that are calm and relaxing from the beginning, where there is no rush or stress to get something done, where it’s more important to breathe and be present than rushing and getting things done. This is where yoga comes in.

If you are trying to lose weight and are more interested in an environment of peace and tranquillity from beginning to the end, where there is no rush to get things done but also helps you reach your fitness goal, then you should try yoga.

Yoga was developed by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India over 5,000 years ago. And to this day, it’s still in use due to its extraordinary physical & mental benefits.

By performing yoga, you can lose weight, improve your overall flexibility, digestion, mental health, heart health, manages stress, respiratory system, etc. All you have to do is perform poses according to your goal and you are golden.

Without further delay, here are 10 simple yoga asanas/poses you can perform to lose weight:

10 Yoga Poses For Weight Loss

Here are a few things you should keep in mind before performing these yoga poses:

1. You should perform these poses first thing in the morning before breakfast.
2. Don’t rush while performing these yoga poses. Perform them slowly. Give yourself enough time so that you can comfortably perform these poses.
3. You don’t need to perform these yoga poses perfectly. You need to perform them as perfectly as your body allows you to. When I started performing yoga, I used to find it very difficult to maintain the Equestrian pose. However, I did what my yoga instructor told me and executed it as perfectly as my body allowed me to. Within one month, I was performing it correctly.
4. It’s perfectly normal if you are not flexible enough to perform these poses perfectly.
5. If you perform yoga consistently, you will get good at it, no matter how inflexible you are right now.

Here are 10 yoga asanas for weight loss:

0. Transcendental Meditation

You should consider starting your daily yoga routine with a 10-minute Transcendental meditation session.

Meditation is not going to help you in losing weight. However, it will prepare you mentally for your yoga routine. You can practice any meditation technique; I would recommend giving a shot to transcendental meditation.

It’s easy to learn and perform. Moreover, there are tons of benefits of this meditation technique. Here’s an article you can use to learn Transcendental Meditation.

1. Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

The chair pose is a standing yoga pose that engages the back, core, and thighs. This pose looks simple compared to other yoga poses on the list, however, this pose demands a great deal of focus and determination.

This pose will strengthen gluteal, thigh, abdominal, back muscles, and ankles & feet. Your overall balance will improve. However, you should avoid this pose if you have a chronic knee problem, back injury, or arthritis.

2. Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Adho Mukha Svanasana is a beginner-level inversion asana performed in many yoga sequences for pose transition. This pose strengthens the shoulder muscles, stretches the calves and hamstrings, tones arms and leg muscles, etc.

You should avoid performing this yoga pose if you have a back, knee, or shoulder injury. Moreover, if you have weak ankles, shoulders, and wrists should avoid this pose.

This pose requires a great deal of ankle flexibility to perform it correctly. I couldn’t do it the first time I did it. It took me two months of consistent effort to do it.

3. Trikonasana (Triangle Pose)

Trikonasana is a standing beginner-level yoga pose. This yoga pose activates core muscles, reduce stiffness in the spine and back, unlocks the hip flexors and shoulders, stretches the hamstring muscles, etc.

This yoga pose should be avoided by senior citizens as it requires a great deal of balance. Trikonasana also balances the root chakra, heart chakra, and sacral chakra. 

4. Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar)

Surya namaskar is a sequence of twelve yoga poses.

There are several versions of Surya Namaskar on the internet. The one mentioned here is one of the easiest versions. You will get the best results if you stick to a particular version and perform it consistently.

Yoga poses that make up Surya Namaskar: Pranamasana, Hastauttanasana, Hastapadasana, Ashwa Sanchalanasana, Dandasana, Ashtanga Namaskara, Bhujangasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana.

Surya Namaskar is known as  ‘The Ultimate Asana’.

It improves cardiovascular health, metabolism, blood circulation, tones the entire body, strengthens muscles and joints, and helps with weight loss.

On average, one round of Surya Namaskar burns approximately 13.90 calories (One round= 2 x Sequence of 12 yoga poses). You can burn up to 500+ calories by performing Surya Namaskar alone for 30 minutes.

5. Warrior I Pose (Virabhadrasana I)

Virabhadrasana I is a beginner-level yoga pose.

This is the easiest yoga asana on this list. Warrior I pose strengthens the legs and upper arms, improves balance, core strength, and coordination. This pose also stretches the muscles around the hips, ankles, groin, etc.

Avoid performing this pose if you have a knee, shoulder, or arm injury. There are several variations of Warrior poses, however, none of them is as easy as this one.

6. Plank Pose (Phalakasana)

Phalakasana is a beginner-level yoga pose that keeps the body in one static position.

All you have to do is hold this pose for 30-seconds and you will strengthen your abdominals, wrists, arms, glutes, shoulders, back, core, and hands. This pose will also improve your posture and align your spine.

However, if you have an arm, back, or leg injury, you should avoid this pose.

7. Warrior II Pose (Virabhadrasana II)

Virabhadrasana II is a beginner-level standing pose, a variation of Virabhadrasana.

This pose strengthens the legs, hips, groins, shoulder, and arms, opens the chest and lungs, and improves balance, focus, determination, circulation, respiration, and stability.

8. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana is a back-bending yoga pose. The pose strengthens the spine, legs, and shoulder and can be used as preparation for deeper backends as well as to counteract the stress of sitting for long periods.

Avoid this pose if you have a knee, back, or shoulder injury.

9. Ananthasana  (Sleeping Vishnu Pose)

Sleeping Vishnu Pose is a reclined balancing yoga posture.

This yoga pose tones the abdomen muscles, improve hip mobility, concentration, focus, balance, coordination, and reduces back pain. Sleeping Vishnu Pose also stretches the hamstrings, calves, pelvic, groin, and hip muscles.

10. Malasana (Garland Pose)

Malasana, also known as Garland Pose, is a beginner-level pose where a person squats with his feet as close together as possible. This yoga pose improves leg strength, balance, and stability and strengthens and stretches the hips, groin, feet, and ankles.

Make Dietary Changes!

No matter how many yoga poses you perform, you can’t subdue the effect of a bad diet. To lose weight while performing these yoga poses, you need to eliminate junk food, empty calories, sugary drinks, alcohol, etc from your diet.

Moreover, consume only healthy, organic food. Starting a diet is also a great option. Here’s an Ideal weight calculator you can use to determine your ideal weight and the weight you need to lose.

Once you know your ideal weight, you can use the calorie calculator to determine how many calories you need to consume daily to lose weight. You can use the cronometer app to track your calorie and macronutrient intake.

If calorie deficit doesn’t work for you, You can also follow the keto diet to lose weight swiftly.

For those who don’t know what keto is, It’s a diet plan that focuses on foods that contain a lot of fats, an adequate amount of protein, and very few carbohydrates.

Millions of people have tried the keto diet and shared their keto journey on Instagram with unbelievable before and after transformation photos.

However, keto is complicated and requires a lot of planning. You should consider following keto under the guidance of your nutritionist. You can also get a custom keto diet meal plan from here.

This diet plan will also be tailored to your weight loss goals and nutritional requirements and will be created based on the expertise of certified nutritionists, personal trainers, and chefs.

Conclusion

If you look at most modern training methods, you will realize that results are earned with pain and effort. You have to put reps in, you are going to feel stressed out, you are going to feel anxious, and that’s the only way you will get results and the feeling of calmness & success after your workout is over.

If you don’t push yourself, or are not ready to put in the effort required, you will not get results. However, yoga offers a different path. A path where you don’t need to worry about reps, sets, or pushing yourself.

All you need to do is focus on your breathing, settling your mind, relaxing, and centering yourself.

With yoga, you may take a little more time than usual to lose weight, however, one thing is sure as long as you perform yoga consistently, you are never going to gain the weight back.

And it’s easy to remain consistent when the activity is as pleasurable as yoga.

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