Calories Burned During Vinyasa Flow Yoga

You go to yoga for the spiritual awakening and cosmic energy, right? Or maybe you really go to yoga to burn calories. An active vinyasa yoga class is reported to burn a good number of calories per hour of practice — about equal to running at 5 mph. Of course, exactly how many calories burned depends on your size, intensity and familiarity with the practice.

The HealthStatus calculator estimates that a 150-pound woman burns 594 calories in an hour-long practice. This is slightly misleading, however, as it assumes you're actively flowing the whole time — no Child's pose or Savasana.

​Read more​: What Are the Benefits of Vinyasa Yoga?

Vinyasa describes any yoga practice in which you move from pose to pose, linking the posture with the breath. Ashtanga, Power and flow classes are all considered styles of vinyasa yoga, says an April 2019 article on the website Flo.

The intensity of the flow influences the calorie burn. A slow-flowing class is technically defined as vinyasa, but will burn fewer calories than a class that links flows together with Sun Salutations, Chair, lunges, Chaturangas, handstands and jump-throughs.

If you're new to yoga practice, you'll likely burn more calories than a regular practitioner. This is because the moves are new to your body and it thus takes more effort for you to flow from pose to pose. A conditioned yogi has muscle memory and developed efficiency to step into Warrior I and Triangle, as well as other poses, with ease.

A usual vinyasa class begins slowly — with a few seated postures and breath work — and then builds to more intense postures that burn the most calories. You then wind down to longer holds of poses, such as Pigeon or Seated Forward Fold, which don't burn many calories. Finally, practice ends with five minutes in Savasana, in which you lie in Corpse pose to steady the mind and central nervous system.

While this pattern makes for a well-balanced class, it only leaves about 20 to 40 minutes of high-intensity flowing that burns a good number of calories. This is why estimates of 500 calories or more burned in vinyasa can be misleading.

​Read more​: 13 Reasons to Start Practicing Yoga

A larger person burns more calories during practice. It simply takes more energy to fuel a bigger engine. This means that if you're a 115-pound woman, you'll burn a lot less than a 200-pound man.

A 2016 review sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health found that yoga lowered the BMI of people living with overweight or obesity. You can make your practice burn more calories by whether you're at home, or practicing in a studio.

• Use a swift ujjayi breath to link the postures. Inhale and exhale through your nose at a rate of about two seconds in and two seconds out.
  
• Incorporate mostly standing and balancing postures, especially Warrior III and Dancer.
  
• When your teacher gives you permission to rest in Child's pose, opt for Downward-Facing Dog. Resting doesn't burn significant calories.
  
• Choose Ashtanga or Power vinyasa classes, if they're offered where you practice.