Yoga has been around for over 5,000 years.
We know that it’s the ultimate exercise to create mindfulness and to align your body, soul and mind. But yoga has ever since been expanding, now offering more than just a few stretches.
Yogis have been following nutritional diets for some time now and the results show.
So, what are the best yoga diets for weight loss? Well, here are a few diets Yogis all over the world swear by.
Quick Content
- Keto Diet
- Benefits of the Atkins Diet
- Food to Avoid
- Food to Include
- Your Typical Day
- The Sattvic Diet
- Benefits of The Sattvic Diet
- Food to Include
- Food to Avoid
- Paleo Diet
- Benefits of the Paleo Diet
- Food to Include
- Food to Avoid
- Yoga Weight Loss Diet
- Food to Include
- Food to Avoid
- Final Thoughts
- Want To Know More About Zoe Bray Cotton?
- Who Is Zoe Bray Cotton?
Keto Diet
The Famous Atkins Diet
The Atkins diet is a version of the keto diet developed by Dr. Robert C Atkins.
It goes by many other names including the low carb diet, the low carb high fat diet and more.
It’s a very basic, easy-to-follow eating plan that’ll help you stay in shape.
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The idea behind the ketogenic diet or Atkins diet is to help your body focus on burning unnecessary fats instead of burning carbohydrates.
If there are no carbs to break down in the body, the liver will break down fatty acids as an energy source.
This energy source is called ketosis.
The Atkins diet is divided into four phases
Phase 1: Starting your keto journey with a bang, you’re allowed under 20 grams of carbs per day for the next two weeks. You’ll be eating low-carb vegetables and food high in fat and protein
Phase 2: You’ll be adding a few food sources back into the diet such as nuts and fruits
Phase 3: This is the phase where you’ll proceed with your meal plan until you’re “almost there.” Once you’re close to your weight loss goal you can reintroduce more low-carb sources back into your diet
Phase 4: The maintenance phase. The idea of this phase is to be able to eat as many healthy carbs as you want without regaining your weight.
The key words are healthy carbs and moderation.
Some yogis prefer not to follow the phases and will rather cut down on carbs and eat fruits and vegetables from day one.
As long as you follow the no-carb to low-carb guidelines you’ll be seeing results.
In short, significantly cutting down on your carb intake will boost your metabolism and burn excess fat in your body.
Benefits of the Atkins Diet
Apart from being one of the most proven to work weight loss programs the keto diet also offers numerous health benefits.
This diet was originally used by health care professionals to treat and control epilepsy in children. Let’s look at some of the other benefits you can expect from this diet.
Suppressed appetite
The biggest cause of people not following through on a diet is because of hunger.
When you cut down on carbs the way you would in the keto diet, your appetite significantly decreases.
Filling up on healthy fats and protein has been proven to make you feel more satisfied and fuller for longer periods.
Bye-Bye belly fat
Fat is stored in various areas in the body. You already know how stubborn abdominal fat can be but it’s also extremely dangerous.
Visceral fat that’s formed in the abdominal cavity also surrounds organs inside the body causing insulin levels to rise.
Low carb diets are known for being most effective to reduce abdominal cavity fat.
Listen to your heart
The keto diet significantly lowers triglyceride levels.
Triglycerides form in the arteries and are responsible for heart diseases.
The higher the levels the higher your risk for a heart attack.
Clear skin
Acne is one of the most difficult skin problems to get rid of and treat.
There are many causes of acne but one of the main culprits are refined sugar and carbohydrates.
It’s no wonder that cutting down on carbs help to clear skin and even treat and prevent acne.
Brain power
Studies suggest that following a keto diet can possibly prevent Alzheimer’s disease and increase focus and concentration with children because of neuroprotective benefits the diet offers.
Food to Avoid
Some food groups will be reintroduced later on in the diet so this is only a guideline:
Food to Include
Let’s look at some of the food you can add to your diet:
Your Typical Day
Here’s an example of what you’ll be eating per day:
The Sattvic Diet
The Sattvic diet also known as the yogic diet is based on yoga literature and beliefs. You can read more about yoga history.
The most important aspect of this diet is that the food must contain sattva quality.
Food must be essential, natural, pure and clean. The yogic diet focuses on moderation and balance.
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The sattvic diet is mostly vegetarian and seasonal fruits and vegetables are included daily. Protein is included in the form of nuts and seeds.
No preservatives, additives or artificial colors are to be consumed.
Vegetables and fruit must be grown naturally. In the case of dairy products, animals must be kept in open spacious environments with enough food and water to live on.
They should be treated with love and respect and they’re not allowed to be pregnant.
Benefits of The Sattvic Diet
The benefits of the Sattvic diet has a lot to do with the spiritual well-being being interlinked with the physical body:
Food to Include
Food to Avoid
Your Typical Day
Paleo Diet
The Caveman Diet
The caveman diet or rather the paleo diet basically lets you eat whatever the “cavemen” way back then could get their hands on to eat.
This means anything and everything natural they could hunt or get themselves are allowed in this diet.
It’s focused mainly on the consumption of higher quantities of real, non-packaged, unprocessed food that cavemen could have consumed thousands of years ago, before all of these huge grocery stores we have available in today’s world came into being
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This diet revolves around everything natural. You can expect to eat meat, green leaves and tons of superfood such as nuts and berries.
Dairy and grains are basically two of the main sources you won’t be allowed to eat on this diet. If the flintstones ate it, you can have it as simple as that.
Benefits of the Paleo Diet
Food to Include
Food to Avoid
Your Typical Day
You can either eat three meals a day with a snack or you can skip the snack if you don’t feel hungry.
Having a third meal is also optional so it’ll be perfectly fine to only have two large meals a day while on this diet.
Yoga Weight Loss Diet
There are different diet plans that are labelled as yoga diets.
From vegetarian to vegan to just well balanced, ultimately, they all have the same thing in common: mindfulness. With all yoga diets you need to be self-controlled.
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A yoga diet can be modified to suit your needs and beliefs. Some yogis don’t believe in the killing and or eating of any animal at all.
In that case you’ll go the vegetarian or vegan route, while others will prefer white meat only as a protein option. In the end, all food must be fresh without any refined sugar or chemicals.
Vegetables must be raw or slightly undercooked.
Benefits of a Yoga Diet
Food to Include
A standard Yoga diet for weight loss consists of:
Food to Avoid
This will greatly depend on what type of diet you follow: Vegetarian, vegan or balanced. Some rules do apply to all the yoga diets:
Your Typical Day
Breakfast: A smoothie made up of organic fruits and vegetables such as beetroot, kale, apple and berries
Lunch: Salad with organic vegetables and one form or dairy if allowed such as cottage cheese
Dinner: Leafy green salad with seared tofu
Final Thoughts
The results speak for themselves with these all-natural green diets and why wouldn’t it?
By cutting out refined sugar and other unhealthy options your body is automatically being cleansed from harmful toxins which ultimately will result in weight loss.
The added benefits of yogi-friendly diets are of course the inner peace and tranquility it provides.
This offers a holistic approach to give you inner strength and health.
These diets should all be followed with yoga exercise programs for optimal results.
As with any other diet perseverance is key and if at first you don’t succeed, try again. You literally have nothing to lose except for unwanted weight.
Once you see the results and change in your mind and body you’ll want to nourish your body with healthy food. It’ll become easier to follow a healthy lifestyle.
“Wellness is a connection of paths, knowledge and action” – Joshua Welch
Yoga Burn
Meet Zoe Bray Cotton, The Creator Of The Yoga Burn - A 28 Day Calorie Burning Program That Uses Dynamic Online Yoga Classes To Burn Fat And Get You Looking Good And Feeling Great.
