Calories Burned in Hot Yoga

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cmarks88
cmarks88 Posts: 3
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm just wondering if anyone has an accurate calorie burn for Hot Yoga I used a few websites and they said I was burning over 1000 calories for 90 mins. That just seems a little bit too high. Has anyone ever snuck a heart rate monitor into a class before for a more accurate count?

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  • BECav0602
    BECav0602 Posts: 200 Member
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    I burned almost 500 in a 75 minute minute class. 5'6" 145lbs.
  • flyawaybyebye
    flyawaybyebye Posts: 250
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    I burned almost 500 in a 75 minute minute class. 5'6" 145lbs.

    Brandilee, did you get that from a HRM? I need to buy a HRM, but my weight is right about the same as yours, so I'm wondering if I'll be similar. Thanks for the post!
  • BECav0602
    BECav0602 Posts: 200 Member
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    I did wear my HRM in. I have the Polar FT4. I also had to take a lot of breaks since it was my first time. So, you could burn more or less. A lot of it also depends on how your body works. I work out at high intensity (kickboxing, lots of cardio combined with weights and a personal trainer once a week) so I think my body tends to burn more than someone who works out at a lower intensity. Hope this helps.

    A HRM is a great investment. It was worth every penny I paid for it and motivates me to work harder in my workouts.
  • leanan21
    leanan21 Posts: 13
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    I have been trying to figure out the same thing. By "hot" yoga, do you mean Bikram? The class I go to has the room heated to between 80 and 90 degrees and is a combination of Vinyasa Flow and "Power" yoga. I think Bikram keeps the room even hotter.

    My calculated calories counts for 60 minutes range from 300 to 700 depending on the website. It's really frustrating. I've been low-balling my number, but I also don't want to go below my net calories. (I'm 5'5'', 152 lbs)
  • MissVV
    MissVV Posts: 19
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    It wouldn't surprise me if you did burn a lot of cals in a bikram yoga session - have you felt how hard your heart beats during a session?!! But i think a HRM would be inaccurate in this scenario as you're not beating really fast because you're out of breath and running, but because of temperature regulation. I'd probably go with around 400-500cals/hour.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    I take a heated vinyasa class.
    Even though it wears me out, I really don't think its because I am expending a lot of energy, but rather just from the heat. I'd be very skeptical of the super high calorie burn counts.
    Typically when I burn a ton of cals I know it, because then I am starved, but heated yoga never has that effect on me.
  • leanan21
    leanan21 Posts: 13
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    I take a heated vinyasa class.
    Even though it wears me out, I really don't think its because I am expending a lot of energy, but rather just from the heat. I'd be very skeptical of the super high calorie burn counts.
    Typically when I burn a ton of cals I know it, because then I am starved, but heated yoga never has that effect on me.

    That makes sense. It was hard work (got the muscle shakes) but it was more taxing on my muscles than my heart.
  • yoginimary
    yoginimary Posts: 6,786 Member
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    I'm also skeptical of the HRM readings in hot/bikram yoga. I don't think hot yoga burns more calories than hot walking (also posted today). Your HR is higher because of the heat, thus the HRM reading, but the calorie burn isn't much more.
  • Doreen_Murray
    Doreen_Murray Posts: 396 Member
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    I was just wondering the same thing: My HRM read 211 calories for 60 minutes, but that just didn't feel accurate. My heart rate was down to 80 at one point...wtf? Maybe my reading was off, but haven't had issues in any other exercises, so ??? Oh well, great burn and great class!
  • avgcool
    avgcool Posts: 1 Member
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    Hey girl be really careful when you do hot yoga- my friend lost so many electrolytes she almost had a heart attack. Make sure you drink tons of water and gatorade!
  • Doreen_Murray
    Doreen_Murray Posts: 396 Member
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    Hey girl be really careful when you do hot yoga- my friend lost so many electrolytes she almost had a heart attack. Make sure you drink tons of water and gatorade!

    Yikes! Glad your friend is okay. Definitely noted and thanks for sharing!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Hot yoga burns about the same as other types of yoga. HRM readings are useless for hot yoga classes. (Quite frankly, they aren't that accurate for regular yoga classes either).

    This is a classic case where the activity does not meet the programmed expectations of the HRM, so the data is useless--garbage in, garbage out.

    Hot yoga may be great for many things--I'm not saying anything about the activity itself--but the reported calorie burns are wildly inflated.

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