Is Yoga or a Gym the Best Way to Lose Weight?

Once you've decided that losing weight has risen to the top of your fitness wish list, it's time to develop your calorie-burning workout to help you get results. If you've narrowed your choices to taking up yoga or joining a gym to use its various exercise equipment, each type of workout has numerous benefits, but one will help you burn calories quicker.

Calories and Weight

• When you plan to exercise to lose weight, you're burning calories to reduce the amount of fat throughout your body. To burn off 1 pound of fat, you must burn 3,500 calories more than you consume, according to MayoClinic.com. Attempting to create this calorie deficit in a couple of days is overly difficult. Instead, aim to burn 500 extra calories per day to lose 1 pound of fat each week.

Yoga Calories Burned

• Because yoga classes vary considerably in structure, and thus in the level of exertion you’ll need to complete the class, you won’t burn the same number of calories in every class. If you weigh 180 pounds, you’ll burn 113 calories for every 30 minutes you spend doing Hatha yoga, according to HealthStatus. Ashtanga yoga will burn 210 calories in 30 minutes, while hot yoga burns 286 calories in 30 minutes.

Gym Calories Burned

• Visiting the gym gives you access to not only strength-training machines, but aerobic exercise machines that can help you burn calories at rates much quicker than yoga classes. HealthStatus notes that a 180-pound person who uses the elliptical trainer for 30 minutes will burn 464 calories. The same person will burn 410 calories in 30 minutes of running at 6 mph and 356 calories in 30 minutes of using the rowing machine at a vigorous pace.

Circuit Training

• On its own, weight training doesn’t help you burn calories as quickly as aerobic exercise; a 180-pound person who lifts weights for 30 minutes will burn just 140 calories. But if you're already at the gym, try circuit training. Circuit training, which combines high-intensity aerobic exercise with weight training, can boost the rate at which you burn calories for several hours after your workout. Try 40 seconds of using a machine such as the stair climber and then one to two minutes of weight training. Repeat these exercises for up to 45 minutes to get a challenging workout in a short period of time.