Bikram for weight loss – any stories for me?!

I’d like to add my weight loss experience since starting Bikram in June of this year. As a “compulsive-obsessive” person I am going 5-6 times a week, usually to the 7PM class, which means I get home about 9PM, eat some fruit (usually ice cold watermelon) and go to bed. I have to get up really early for work. Over the last 6 months I have dropped from 163 to about 142 pounds and have noticed a change of shape in my lower body (yeah)…smaller glutes shall we say…I am 5’10”, female, 65 years old. I eat breakfast, lunch and snacks during the day and am hopefully getting a balanced diet. I do think that the weight loss is due to burning more calories than I am consuming. I’m considering this a way of life to continue since I feel great and have lots of energy. I’ve done a 30-day challenge (September) and will do the 60-day challenge in January 2010 at my studio. 🙂

Hello everyone! This is Jennifer Clark or you can call me Jennifer C. I didn’t know where to post this but I guess this forum will fit my topic since I love this section lol.

I was referred here by someone ; but I don’t know his username just yet so I couldn’t enter it when signing up.

I am very interested in this forum as I am new to forums and posts and these kind of thing also I hope I can get the full benefit from this forum 🙂

So, let me know if I am welcomed here ^^

Kind of Regards.

Jennifer C. 🙂

Robert,

Sorry took me a while to respond back to your comment. Interesting that you mentioned the NLP, and no I didn’t know that both you and Gabrielle are NLP practitioners. Yes I’ve actually been going for my NLP sessions in the past 6 mos and found that it helped me tremendously. It’s excellent for reprogramming your mind and getting rid of the old clutter and garbage that we have stored in our subconscious mind.
And the reason I decided to do it back then was because I had been brainwashed by all the negative people around me that as you get older you automatically gain weight and will never lose it. I believed all those inane stereotypes back then, and today I can say that it really helped me to lose 30 lbs in the past 3 months. I actually have a family friend that’s doing it right now. He’s quite overweight, in poor health and believes that he’ll never get better in any way and that it’s all over for him now. Consequently, he’s become extremely lethargic, won’t exercise and eats crap. I know some people view it as some “new age” “mumbo jumo” like my Doctor for example, but if more people were open minded and enlightened they would see it for what it really is.

Anyway always enjoy reading your comments.
Ily:)

Oh hello Gabrielle,

I agree that the brain is incredibly fascinating and so intelligent as well, and I also believe that the body is also intelligent, knows what it wants and is capable of great healing. I have actually seen that movie: What the bleep do we know and found it quite interesting. And yes that’s true how we create our own reality with our thoughts. I know as soon as I get any type of negative thought, I have to stop myself and make a concentrated effort to switch my thoughts, so as to not “ruin” the rest of my day.
I myself am really into my vision boards, power of positive affirmations, NLP, EFT even, try to avoid all negativity including TOXIC people as well. It’s unfortunate that many people haven’t quite realized that and seem to be forever making these same mistakes over and over. I’m hugely fascinated by quantum physics and have read many of those kind of books, everything from that movie, to Law of Attraction, Wayne Dyer’s books, books by Louis Hays (How to heal your life), The Secret, anything by Esther Hicks. Currently I’m reading one by Gabrielle Bernstein called : How to add more ing to your life. You can hear more about that one on youtube as well. But yes this is a topic I could really talk to death about!

Namaste to you too,
Ily:)

I’ve lost 30 pounds in the three years I’ve been practicing Bikram yoga, but I think some of that is due to coming off of some antidepressants that put weight on you. I still have 35 pounds to go and my doctor says that in order to take off weight put on by those medications, I need to exercise 60 to 90 mins/day, 7 days a week. I’m not strong enough to do Bikram everday yet and I haven’t lost any weight on the scale in a few months. But, my clothes are swimming on me and people are always making remarks about how much slimmer I look. I’ve gone down 4 or 5 dress sizes, and constantly try to better refine a vegan vegetarian food plan. Take heart!

Gday everybody I’m completely new to this site. How’s everybody doing today? I really like it here! I really hope to learn a lot hopefully even make some new buddies! 🙂

I began hot yoga in October 2009. I’ve lost 9 lbs. so far, but what I’ve really noticed is the inches I’ve lost. My clothes feel great and my body is taking on a new shape. Much leaner! I love that I found hot yoga. I’ve honestly never felt better in my life.

I have lost 24 pounds since June 26, 2010 but it wasn’t just doing Hot Yoga. I had to drastically reduce my caloric intake. I am 5’7″ and weighed 162 at 64 years old and had been unable to loose any weight for several years with caloric reduction alone. When I started doing Bikram in March I was nearly crippled with two bad knees that caused me to sit around all the time so I was very weak.

My daughter encouraged me to try Bikram so I decided to try.

After a month going several times a week my strength grew and my knees got stronger. So I began going every day.
By the end of June I was really doing better; more stamina, strength and vitality. So I cut back on food, dropping to about 1200 calories/day and the weight flew off, a pound a day sometimes. It seemed strange to reduce calories when I was working so hard, yet I have more energy than I had before.

I believe the key is to build up the core strength so you can move further in the poses and in life, as well as reducing calories. It is also important to have a positive, excited attitude to encourage the body as it “looses” the weight.

Personally I think weight and weighing are over-rated (within reason obviously). Anything I do makes me smaller but I don’t loose weight and have been to known to put it on with resistance training (still loose size.

I think if you have all those benefits and can see you have changed shape – stick with it.

I highly recommend you measure yourself – chest, waist, hips, bottom, upper arms and thighs and see what changes occur every four weeks!

Also, if you are looking to do some other type of exercise, resistance training and uphill walking would be a great addition to your Bikram!

Best of luck!

You’re looking fabulous Dennis

Thanks for the inspiring photos.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Sally

I hope you have had time to look around at the stories that so many others have already shared. You will find our most read thread here: I Am Quite Overweight And Doing Hot Yoga. Check out many inspirational stories, advice and others’ experience in this section of the forum: Weight Loss and Hot Yoga.

It is my opinion that if you go at least 4-5 times a week and maybe even more, you can lose shape quite fast (does depend on the person – but it can happen VERY fast) and you don’t have to do any other exercise. It is your choice. When you settle into a maintenance routine then you can introduce other types of exercise.

There are definitely differing opinions regarding what to do. Let’s see what others suggest.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

I really loved your links.
Thanks for sharing

Hi Laura

Sorry for the delay, I am on holidays.

So!! Any progress since end of June? For me what usually happened and what others have often noticed is that change doesn’t always make itself obvious. Sometimes things just look as if they’re static and then all of a sudden you notice that your shape is changing rapidly… It’s as if it drops all at once.

Sometimes too I find that obsessive attention to weight or shape change can somehow be counter productive (others find it essential). Has counting calories worked for you in the past? (I am not calling you obsessive but simply drawing attention to the constant state of awareness that needs to be there if you’re counting calories and checking scales and counters). I know some need to have a rigid set of actions. Others simply need some food or activity rules. Each needs patience (mostly!).

Most people find that 4+ hot yoga sessions per week is enough to keep them sufficiently challenged and they don’t need extra CV workouts. May I ask if you are still doing 5-6 classes per week? And also I want to know if you are taking electrolyte supplementation in the way of sea salt or some commercial product. Some people retain water because of a complex scenario regarding water/electrolyte imbalance.

Over to you

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂