Would Yoga Help Me Tone and Lose Weight by Itself?

[TaniTea]

Hi! I'm new here but I've been trying to find a place where . can ask this...

I am 23, 5"4, and I've reached an alarming weight (in opinion). I recently graduated college and started working and moving around a bunch. I've finally settled down but I work 12 hour days, so making time for two workouts (and finding the energy) has gotten really difficult. I'm used to doing two a days with cardio in the morning and some sort of weight exercise in the evening.

But now I need to find a way to get the same effect in one workout. I've always loved yoga and I've heard that it works well to tone and promote weight loss, but question is if yoga by itself (aswell as a good diet, of course(:) would help me lose weight and get toned. I'm looking into Hatha yoga or Bikram.

Do I need to make room for more cardio or weight training? Should I try another workout regime? Please help!

Thank you (:

[Boss Man]

Yoga is workable and could be done at home, but if it's a toss up between only cardio or only weights, do the weights, as you'll burn calories when you lift weights and you'll burn calories when your muscles build and repair and 1lb of extra muscle burns an added 45-50 calories a day.

[vamp]

Doing your weights in a circuit style routine will also keep the heart rate up and help burn a little more. Circuits go from 6-10 (approx.) exercise, one after the other for the first set (weights for a 8-12 rep range), Then for the second set you do the whole set of exercises one after another again. Then if you can, do a third set. Between each circuit, take 2-3 minutes for a break (this is when you get your water, etc.)

Hope this helps with Bossman's suggestion!

[Boss Man]

I've also read about people before who split a TBT into a circuit, so they do 1 set of each exercise, then do the same thing again 2-3 times, instead of doing 2-3 sets of one exercise at a time, then moving on, so that's like starting out benching, then benching again about 20-30 minutes after you first benched.

Personally I don't think I'd want to train that way, because you'd be potentially giving up some equipment you could still use, only to find it was being used later when you wanted it again, whereas if I'm still on it for another 4-6 minutes, nobody can have it until I'm done.

[vamp]

Good point Bossman, I guess I was thinking more of the body weight exercises. They help with range of motion, strength, endurance, flexibility and require very little equipment or space.