Hot Yoga

I have heard that actual calorie burn may be closer to what MFP has. I read an article saying that the heat and humidity in the room alone cause the heart rate to elevate, meaning that even if you sat in childs pose the entire class, your HRM might tell you you burned 300-400 calories. I have also been trying to find a good way to measure calorie burn from hot vinyasa (power) yoga. I have been going with MFP, so I don't unknowingly go over my calories.

Vinyasa is much more like a dance class, less like yoga, in my opinion. My HR sky rockets during a Vinyasa class. We do it in 93.5 degrees - not considered hot, but it's hot to me! I have never worn my HRM during a class but I can see on Wednesday morning if you want? I know it isn't going to be accurate for everyone, but it might give an idea?

I am 5'4, 138 lbs, 35 years old.

Interesting about child's pose and the HRM/calories. Now I am super curious!

i also do hot yoga & bikram & i understand what your saying. when i joined MFP a couple weeks ago i noticed it wasnt listed in the exersises so i tried to look up online and there are whole forums & articles arguing over the effects of hot yoga. most say its not the calorie burn that people think it is. Others say its more. I love my hot yoga classes so im more inclined to be defensive of them. yes to some it might seem like not a huge work out. but when i started three months ago my first class made every muscle in my body ache for a week!!!! then the more i went the more i noticed i felt AMAZING after class.Im standing up straighter, my back & joints dont hurt as bad, i can FEEL the detox from sweating the crap outta my body three times a week. i started at 245 & am now 238(christmas & some whisky drinking got in the way ) Ive lost a pants size. And the only thing ive changed in my routine is that yoga class,( trying to work on adding more, but baby steps). while i have not yet put a HRM on in class there no way your not getting some good benefit out of it & if you ever seen what shape most of the yoga instructor are in? thats gotta say something. so looking at a couple different sites i put my hot yoga as bout a 595 burn for an hour class(my heart rate does get up there). it was a number in the middle of what i saw posted online,this way i dont feel like im over estimating it, but the important part is if it makes you feel good keep doing it. dont not do it cause it doesnt have a huge calorie burn. its got other benefits too

agarret6, I mostly agree with you, I work my butt off and my muscles are shaking and I am spent after each class, and that HAS to be worth a decent calorie burn right??. I have done vinyasa yoga about 2x a week in addition to my regular cardio and I have seen a difference in my body. However, during that time I was putting yoga in as what it is on MFP. My thought is that aside from my shoulders and arms, I sometimes wonder if some of my soreness could be from getting such deep stretches while warm and in the heat. Also, in the high temps obviously you are going to sweat more and get rid of some water weight immediately, and that sweat may not totally be related to calorie burn. For me, I don't go to yoga mainly to burn calories, I go for the detox, mental clarity, inner strength and confidence and afterglow that I get from it, among other things. In fact, sometimes if I can make it to yoga it's just a bonus on top of my other work outs. However, if I am taking the time to log everything I eat and every workout I do, there should be a more accurate answer out there.

according to my hrm, (polar4) my 90 minute hot yoga class burns 1060 calories. my instructor often tells people that the calories burned is equivalent to a 90 minute spin class.

I wore my HRM to a 75 minute hot yoga class and I supposedly burned 357 calories (5'6", 160 lbs 28yo f) but I think that's probably high......