US Study Says Hot Yoga Can Help Stop Your Emotional Eating Binges

A new US study has shown hot yoga can cure those emotional eating binges.

We’ve all been there; your relationship has fallen apart, you’re feeling snowed under at work and your parents are on your back about your future.

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with the pressures of work, and of relationships, that a common way of coping is giving in and buying a tub of ice cream.

But alas, there may be a cure for emotional eaters.

If you have a tendency to emotionally over-eat, data presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention showed how hot yoga could help you stop.

The study also showed it may help you cope with other bad habits, such as that cheat cigarette, as well as reduced depression and negative thoughts.

Lindsey Hopkins, PhD, of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who spoke at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, said those who attended hot yoga classes over an 8 week period had lower depressive symptoms and higher tolerance to stress at the end of the study than those who did not.

Hopkins said; “Clearly, hot yoga is not a cure-all. However, based on empirical evidence, there seems to be a lot of potential.”

52 women with signs of depression, high stress levels and unhealthy eating habits, took part in the study. The women who did hot yoga over the 8 weeks had significant improvements.

By the end of the study, the decreased emotional eating in those who attended hot yoga classes was almost three times that of the women who’d done no yoga at all.

So how can practicing hot yoga stop you from emotionally eating?

Emotional eating has been scientifically linked to stress, and the individual’s ability to cope with stress.

The practice of yoga encourages the student to be present and self-aware, and to accept the physical and psychological discomfort they may be feeling in the heated yoga studio.

Hot yoga teaches you to focus less on negative thoughts and allow for positive thinking, self-love and care.

The study showed that those who practiced upping their tolerance to stress through hot yoga showed elevated signs of emotional eating binges.

As well as other mental health benefits of yoga, helping those emotional eating binges can now be (scientifically) counted as one of them.

Milly Haddrick

Contributor

Milly is passionate about the issues and concerns of women navigating their way through the world of sex, dating and relationships, with a side passion for brie, dark chocolate and red wine.

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