In May I was a yoga fanatic and then . . . life interrupted. Most of my summer was spent traveling back and forth from Orange County to Seattle and back to Orange County for work. I flew nearly 18,000 miles in three months repeating a sub-2000 mile roundtrip.
I missed yoga. That said, I found myself spending my limited exercise time on less-fun and less-body-friendly activities – hello dreadmill – thinking I was maximizing my calorie burn. You see, even though I felt I was getting more toned and I was losing weight practicing yoga (and in fairness, playing tennis 2+ times per week), Sparkpeople.com and similar websites told me I was burning a lowly 200 calories per hour. Less than 1/2 a Starbucks scone. So I kept skipping yoga in favor of known, but less enjoyable, calorie burners.
Finally, Monday I got it together and headed to a 10 am yoga class. I thought it would be a good toning supplement to tennis and the dreadmill. I also decided to attempt to discover the real burn of hot hatha. With my big ol Polar watch strapped to my wrist and chest strap tucked under my sports bra I headed off. I recorded the calorie burn from both my walk to/from the yoga studio (about 1 mile) and the 1-hour class. The result? . . . .wait for it . . .
A Hell yeah! inspiring 739 calories. 587 calories from the class and 152 from the one-mile speed walk to/from my office and class. This beats tennis class by more than 200 calories for the exact same amount of time.
So guess where I’m headed today?
OC 2 Seattle 
I have just signed up for a yoga class, as a way to tone up – but if it really does burn that many calories then – bonus!!!
I think my comments are going to spam???
Nope – not to spam. If they do, don’t worry, I’ll drag them out and post them 😉
I did 4 days of yoga this week versus 4 days the entire last 3 months…I remembered how much I love it! But yeah, the calorie burn? Not so good!
Are you doing regular yoga or hot? The heat could be what causes the calorie burn to skyrocket.
I need to start going to yoga again…I’m just scared that I’m going to make a fool out of myself. I’ve not practiced for so long! I must say that you are inspiring me…I will let you know how it goes (if it happens!)
You are so not going to make a fool out of yourself! It’s yoga – not synchronized swimming! Just pretend to yourself that you’ve never done yoga before, then you’ll be stoked no matter how well you did 😉
Look how that balances out the treats! i need to do more yoga.
Seriously. Once I lose the weight I’ve put on since moving to SEA, I can reward myself – with a candy bar 😉
Dang! Those vinyasas sort of sneak up on you (and apparently add up!) Which yoga studio do you go to? My favorites are Mountain Flow Yoga and Be Luminous:) I start teacher training at Be Luminous this month (eek!)
Urban Yoga Spa so I can walk to and from work. Good luck with teacher training! I’ll have to check out one of your classes when you start teaching 🙂
I adore my power yoga classes…with all those vinyassas and a 99 degree room, I’m sure I burned more than 200 calories this morning…at least I hope so 🙂
I’m sure you did – power vinyassa is even more intense than hatha!
I need to do more yoga too!
I usually end up getting foiled in my attempts by 4:30 calls from clients – I’m just not going to answer the phone past 4:20 and see if that works 😉