Your Guide: How Many Calories Do You Burn From Hot Yoga
How many calories do you burn from hot yoga? While there’s no single exact number, you can expect to burn roughly 300 to 600 calories in a typical 60-minute hot yoga class. This range changes a lot based on different things like the type of hot yoga, how hard you work, your body, and the room temperature. This guide will break down what affects your hot yoga calorie burn and what you can expect.
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Grasping Hot Yoga
Hot yoga is just yoga done in a very warm room. Often, the room is heated to 90-105°F (32-40°C) with high humidity. The heat makes you sweat a lot. Many people like hot yoga because it helps muscles stretch more. It also makes the workout feel harder. Bikram yoga is a famous kind of hot yoga. It uses a set series of 26 poses and two breathing exercises in a room heated to 105°F (40.5°C) with 40% humidity. Other styles, like Vinyasa hot yoga, might have hotter or cooler rooms and flow through poses differently.
Factors Affecting Your Hot Yoga Calorie Burn
Many things change how many calories you burn in a hot yoga class. It’s not just about being in a hot room. Knowing these factors helps you understand your own hot yoga calorie burn.
Body Weight
A heavier person burns more calories than a lighter person doing the same thing. Your body uses more energy to move and support a heavier weight. So, if you weigh more, your hot yoga calorie burn per hour will likely be higher.
Metabolism Rate
Metabolism is how your body turns food into energy. Some people naturally burn more calories at rest than others. This is your resting metabolic rate. It changes how many calories you burn during exercise too. People with faster metabolisms might see a higher average calories burned hot yoga number.
Intensity of the Practice
How hard are you working? Are you holding poses for a long time? Are you moving fast between poses? Are you putting a lot of effort into each pose? A more intense hot yoga class or putting more energy into the poses will increase your calorie burn. This is where intense hot yoga calorie expenditure comes in. If you push yourself, you burn more.
Style of Hot Yoga
Different types of hot yoga lead to different calorie burns.
* Bikram Yoga: Uses a fixed set of poses. It’s often steady but challenging. Studies on Bikram yoga calorie burn show various results, but it generally falls within the typical range.
* Vinyasa Hot Yoga: Often involves flowing from one pose to the next with your breath. This can feel more like cardio. Vinyasa hot yoga calories burned might be higher for some people compared to Bikram if the flow is fast and challenging.
* Other Hot Styles: Some studios just heat a room for a regular class. The calorie burn depends on the style of yoga (like Hatha or Power Yoga) and the heat level.
Room Temperature and Humidity
The heat makes your body work harder to cool down. This extra work burns calories. Higher temperatures and humidity levels usually mean more calories burned. Your body has to use more energy to keep its temperature normal. This is a big part of the extra calories burned hot yoga class compared to cool yoga.
Your Experience Level
Are you new to hot yoga? Or have you been doing it for years? Beginners might not hold poses as long or move as smoothly. This can mean a lower calorie burn at first. As you get better, you might try harder versions of poses or move with more strength. This can increase your calorie burn over time.
How Long the Class Is
Most hot yoga classes are 60 or 90 minutes. A longer class means more time exercising, so you burn more calories total. The hot yoga calorie burn per hour is a good way to compare different classes, but the total calories burned hot yoga class depends on the length.
Estimating Calories Burned During Yoga
It’s hard to get an exact number for how many calories you burn in yoga, especially hot yoga. There are no machines like treadmills that track it perfectly. But you can get a good estimate. Here is how to estimate calories burned yoga.
Using Online Calculators
Many websites have calorie calculators for exercise. You put in your weight, the activity (like yoga or hot yoga), and how long you did it. These calculators give you a general idea. They often use average numbers, so they might not be perfect for you. Make sure to look for calculators that include hot yoga or Bikram yoga, as they will give a better guess than regular yoga calculators.
Fitness Trackers and Smartwatches
Wearable devices can track your heart rate during a hot yoga class. Some trackers use heart rate along with your age, weight, and height to guess how many calories you burn. This can be more personal than a general calculator. However, the heat and sweat in hot yoga can sometimes make these devices less accurate. Sweat can mess with the sensor. The high heat can raise your heart rate even if you are not working very hard, making the tracker think you are burning more calories than you are just from the exercise itself.
MET Values (Metabolic Equivalents)
Scientists use something called METs to measure how much energy different activities use. One MET is the energy your body uses at rest. An activity with a MET value of 5 means it uses 5 times the energy as resting.
* Yoga has different MET values depending on the style and intensity. Light yoga might be around 2.5 METs. More active yoga, like Vinyasa, might be 4 METs.
* Hot yoga doesn’t have a single MET value listed, but the heat adds extra work. You can guess that hot yoga will be higher than regular yoga of the same style.
To estimate calories burned using METs:
Calories Burned per minute = (MET value × 3.5 × Body weight in kilograms) / 200
Then multiply by the number of minutes you exercised.
Example: A person weighing 60 kg (about 132 lbs) doing hot yoga that feels like a MET value of 5 for 60 minutes.
Kg: 132 lbs / 2.2 = 60 kg
Calories per minute = (5 × 3.5 × 60) / 200 = 1050 / 200 = 5.25 calories per minute
Calories for 60 minutes = 5.25 × 60 = 315 calories.
This is just a rough guess. You’d need to pick a MET value that seems right for how hard you worked and how hot the room was.
Listening to Your Body
While not a number, paying attention to how you feel is important. Are you breathing hard? Are your muscles working? Are you holding challenging poses? How hard you feel you are working often matches how many calories you are actually burning.
Different Hot Yoga Styles and Expected Calorie Burn
The style of hot yoga plays a big role in the calories burned hot yoga class. Here’s a look at some popular types.
Bikram Yoga Calorie Burn
Bikram yoga is done in a room at 105°F (40.5°C) with 40% humidity. The class is 90 minutes long and always includes the same 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises.
* Studies on Bikram yoga calorie burn have varied. One study showed women burned around 330 calories and men around 460 calories in a 90-minute class.
* Another study reported numbers slightly higher.
* The consistency of the poses means the intensity is steady. The heat is a major factor in the calories burned here.
Vinyasa Hot Yoga Calories Burned
Vinyasa yoga links poses together in a flow, moving with your breath. Hot Vinyasa takes this flow and adds heat, often between 90-100°F.
* Since Vinyasa can be fast-paced and different from class to class, the Vinyasa hot yoga calories burned can vary a lot.
* A slower, gentle hot Vinyasa might burn fewer calories than a fast, powerful flow.
* Expect a range similar to Bikram or maybe higher if the flow is very challenging and continuous. Some people might burn 400-600+ calories in an intense 60-minute hot Vinyasa class. This is closer to intense hot yoga calorie expenditure.
Other Hot Yoga Classes
Many studios offer classes like Hot Hatha, Hot Power Yoga, or their own named hot class.
* Hot Hatha: Hatha holds poses longer with less flow. In a hot room, you still get the heat benefit, but the movement might be less intense than Vinyasa. Calories burned might be similar to Bikram or slightly less depending on the pace.
* Hot Power Yoga: This is often a more athletic and challenging style, adding strength and balance work. In a hot room, this can lead to high intense hot yoga calorie expenditure. You could potentially burn 400-700+ calories in a 60-minute class depending on how hard it is.
In summary, the average calories burned hot yoga class usually falls in the 300-600 range for 60 minutes, but remember this is just an average. A 90-minute Bikram class will burn more total calories than a 60-minute Vinyasa class at the same intensity level, simply because it’s longer. The hot yoga calorie burn per hour gives a better way to compare the rate of burning calories between styles or classes.
Hot Yoga Versus Traditional Yoga Calorie Burn
Does the heat really make a difference? Yes, it does. The heat adds extra work for your body. Your body uses energy to try and cool itself down by sweating. This means hot yoga vs traditional yoga calorie burn shows that hot yoga usually burns more calories for the same style and length of class.
- Traditional Hatha yoga might burn around 150-250 calories per hour. Hot Hatha will burn more.
- Traditional Vinyasa yoga might burn 250-400 calories per hour depending on intensity. Hot Vinyasa will burn more.
The exact difference varies, but the hot environment is designed to increase the challenge and, as a result, increase the calories burned hot yoga class compared to a regular room.
Hot Yoga and Weight Loss
Can hot yoga help with weight loss? Yes, it can be a part of a weight loss plan. Weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you eat. Hot yoga burns calories, which helps create this calorie deficit.
How Hot Yoga Helps With Weight Loss
- Burns Calories: As we’ve discussed, hot yoga burns a good number of calories, especially compared to less active forms of exercise. This contributes to your daily calorie burn.
- Builds Muscle: Yoga, including hot yoga, builds lean muscle. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. So, building muscle can increase your metabolism over time, meaning you burn more calories even when you are not exercising.
- Reduces Stress: Stress can affect weight and lead to unhealthy eating. Yoga is known for reducing stress and promoting mindfulness. Feeling less stressed can help you make healthier food choices and stick to your weight loss goals.
- Increases Body Awareness: Practicing yoga helps you become more aware of your body. This can lead to paying more attention to what you eat and how you feel, supporting healthy habits needed for hot yoga weight loss.
Real Expectations for Weight Loss
While hot yoga burns calories, it’s usually not enough on its own for big weight loss if you don’t also look at your diet. To lose one pound of fat, you need to burn about 3500 more calories than you eat.
* If you burn 400 calories in a hot yoga class three times a week, that’s 1200 calories burned from yoga.
* Over a month (about 4.5 weeks), that’s around 5400 calories.
* This calorie burn alone would lead to losing a bit more than 1.5 pounds of fat in a month, assuming everything else stays the same.
For faster or more significant weight loss, combine hot yoga with other activities that burn a lot of calories (like running or cycling) and, most importantly, make healthy changes to your diet.
Maximizing Your Hot Yoga Calorie Burn
If your goal is to burn more calories in hot yoga, here are some things you can do:
- Choose More Intense Classes: Look for hot Vinyasa, Hot Power Yoga, or classes called “challenging” or “intense.” These often involve more movement and harder poses. This directly increases intense hot yoga calorie expenditure.
- Work Hard in Class: Don’t just go through the motions. Engage your muscles. Hold poses with strength. Move with energy. Push yourself within safe limits.
- Go More Often: The more you go, the more calories you burn over time. Aim for 2-4 classes a week if possible.
- Stay Hydrated (Before and After): While drinking water during class is key for safety, being well-hydrated before class helps your body work better and regulate temperature more effectively, which can support a good workout.
- Listen to the Teacher: Pay attention to cues about engaging muscles or deepening stretches. Doing the poses fully and correctly makes them more challenging.
Safety and Hydration in Hot Yoga
Burning calories is great, but safety is most important in a hot room.
Stay Hydrated
You sweat a lot in hot yoga. This means you lose a lot of water and important minerals (electrolytes).
* Drink plenty of water all day, especially before your class.
* Bring a large water bottle to class and drink whenever you feel thirsty.
* For longer classes or if you sweat a lot, consider a drink with electrolytes.
* Drink more water after class to replace what you lost.
* Dehydration can make you feel dizzy, tired, or sick. It can also make it harder to perform well and burn calories effectively.
Listen to Your Body
The heat can make you think you should push harder, but it also makes it easier to overdo it.
* If you feel dizzy, nauseous, or very tired, rest in child’s pose or leave the room if needed.
* Don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone’s body handles heat and exercise differently.
* It’s okay to skip a pose or take a break. Consistency over time is better than burning out or getting hurt.
Get Used to the Heat
If you are new to hot yoga, your first few classes might feel very hard just because of the heat. It takes time for your body to get used to exercising in the heat. Don’t expect to burn the maximum number of calories on your first try. As your body adjusts, you’ll be able to put more energy into the poses, which will increase your calorie burn naturally.
Putting Calorie Burn in Perspective
While it’s interesting to know how many calories you burn from hot yoga, remember that yoga offers many other benefits.
* Flexibility and Strength: Hot yoga improves how well you can move and makes your muscles stronger.
* Balance: Many poses challenge your balance.
* Stress Relief: The focus on breath and movement helps calm the mind.
* Mindfulness: Yoga encourages being present in the moment.
* Better Sleep: Regular exercise like hot yoga can improve sleep quality.
Focusing only on the calories burned hot yoga class might make you miss these other important benefits that support your overall health and well-being. Think of the calories burned as a nice bonus to all the other good things hot yoga does for you.
Your Hot Yoga Journey
Starting or continuing a hot yoga practice is a great step for your health. Whether your goal is hot yoga weight loss, gaining flexibility, reducing stress, or just trying something new, the practice offers a lot.
* Don’t get too hung up on the exact average calories burned hot yoga number.
* Use calorie estimates as a general guide.
* Pay attention to how your body feels and the energy you are putting into your practice.
* Most importantly, enjoy the process!
The hot yoga calorie burn per hour is competitive with many other moderate exercises. When you consider the added benefits of strength, flexibility, and mental calm, hot yoga is a powerful way to move your body and care for yourself. Keep showing up, keep breathing, and keep listening to your body.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hot Yoga Calorie Burn
How does the heat make me burn more calories?
The hot environment makes your body work harder to cool itself down. This extra work of temperature regulation uses more energy, which means you burn more calories than you would doing the same yoga poses in a cooler room.
Is the calorie count from fitness trackers accurate in hot yoga?
Fitness trackers that use heart rate can give an estimate, but they might not be perfectly accurate in hot yoga. The heat alone can raise your heart rate, making the tracker think you are working harder than you are just from the exercise. Also, sweat can sometimes interfere with the sensor. Use the number as a general idea, not an exact measurement.
Does everyone burn the same number of calories in hot yoga?
No, definitely not. Your weight, metabolism, how hard you work, how used you are to the heat, and the specific style and length of the class all affect how many calories you burn. The numbers are just averages or estimates.
Can I lose weight doing only hot yoga?
You can lose weight with hot yoga if the calories you burn from it (plus your daily activities) are more than the calories you eat. However, for most people, it’s very hard to create a large enough calorie deficit for significant weight loss through exercise alone. Combining hot yoga with a healthy diet is usually the most effective approach for hot yoga weight loss.
Which hot yoga style burns the most calories?
Styles that involve more continuous movement, power, and challenging poses tend to burn more calories per hour. Hot Vinyasa or Hot Power Yoga with a strong flow might lead to higher intense hot yoga calorie expenditure compared to a slower style like Hot Hatha or the set sequence of Bikram, although Bikram still burns a good amount due to the heat and length of the class.
Is sweating a lot the same as burning a lot of calories?
No, sweating a lot mainly means you are losing water to cool down. While your body works harder to sweat, leading to some extra calorie burn from temperature regulation, sweating itself is not a direct measure of how many calories your muscles are burning from movement and effort. You can sweat a lot just from being in a hot room without doing much exercise.
How can I tell if I had a good calorie-burning class?
Focus on the effort you put in. Did you feel challenged by the poses? Was your breathing heavy at times? Did you feel your muscles working? If you put in a strong effort, you likely had a good calorie-burning class, regardless of what a tracker or calculator says.
Is a 90-minute Bikram class better for calorie burn than a 60-minute hot Vinyasa?
A 90-minute class will burn more total calories than a 60-minute class, assuming similar intensity per minute. So, a 90-minute Bikram class will likely burn more total calories than a 60-minute hot Vinyasa class, even if the hot Vinyasa had a higher calorie burn per hour. The total time spent exercising matters for total calories burned hot yoga class.