Is Pilates Good for Weight Loss? (+3 Effective Exercises)

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Are you guilty of indulging in too many chips during a stressful football game or reaching for an extra piece of chocolate when feeling bored or sad? When you feel stressed, do you eat to feel better?

This clearly shows that your mind is one of the first causes of you gaining weight.

When you are trying to lose weight and get in shape, your mental health can play a big role. There has been a considerable amount of research through the years showing that what we eat, what kind of exercise we do, or even our posture can affect our mental state.

The key to long-term and sustainable weight loss is the mind-body connection, which means maintaining focus on your goals while controlling your body.

In this article, our team wants to show you how Pilates can help you achieve your body goals by getting your mind and body working together. Read on to know more about it.

Does Pilates Burn Fat?

A Pilates exercise program, when combined with a healthy diet and calorie deficit, can help burn fat or maintain a healthy weight. Just don’t expect it to work as fast as cardio or strength training, as this is a low-impact workout.

Observing changes in the body composition and burning fat through Pilates takes time. Research showed that practicing Pilates for a prolonged period of time can dramatically reduce weight, body mass index, and body fat percentage in obese or overweight adults.

When you practice Pilates consistently, your lean muscle mass increases, which allows you to burn more calories during your other daily activities. A 3,500-calorie burn is roughly equivalent to one pound of fat, so your weight loss depends on how much you burn.

Does Pilates Burn Calories?

The average Pilates workout burns as many calories as half an hour of jogging, which is approximately 102–204 calories for an average 150-pound person.

The type of exercise you do is a matter of personal choice. Making a choice that keeps you coming back is the key to success.

Pilates isn’t intended to burn more calories but to tone your body. Before you sign up for Pilates classes, you need to know what to expect. You’ll get more flexibility and more strength on both sides of your body – and you’ll definitely let go of tension. It also helps build more lean muscle mass.

To burn the most calories during Pilates workouts, you should choose an advanced program with high intensity that pushes you to your limits. Any activity, including Pilates, that increases your heart rate causes your body to burn more calories and promotes weight loss.

How many calories does Pilates burn?

In an hour-long Pilates class, an average 150-pound person can burn between 204 to 408 calories, depending on the level of difficulty.

During a Pilates class, beginners can hardly burn many calories because of slow movements.

To reach advanced levels of Pilates, you will probably have to practice 2–3 times a week for several months. However, after 3–4 weeks, you will start seeing results in how you feel and look.

By the time you reach an advanced level in Pilates, you will be able to burn as many calories as you need to lose weight. An average person who wants to lose one pound of fat per week needs to burn about 500 more calories than they consume every day. This is roughly equivalent to an hour-long workout at an advanced Pilates level.

Is Yoga or Pilates Better for Weight Loss?

Both yoga and Pilates at an advanced level burn a lot of calories and promote weight loss, but they won’t be as effective at an entry level. Even if you’re just starting out, yoga and Pilates can transform your life.

Pilates teaches you to focus, breathe, and train certain muscles in your core to improve your body control. Initially, a Pilates class for beginners is more like an easy series of stretches, which lays the groundwork for you to lengthen your spine, narrow your waist, and lift your chest. With time, Pilates helps with weight loss too.

The goal of yoga is to improve your mental health and awareness rather than make you lose weight. Beginner-level exercises usually involve only a little movement, which does not raise your heart rate enough to burn calories.

Pilates can burn 204–408 calories per hour, as mentioned above. If you’d rather do yoga instead of Pilates, pick a flow class that requires more movement and higher heart rates. For example, one hour of hatha yoga will result in a 170-calorie burn, while more advanced power yoga (ashtanga) can burn 476 calories for an average 150-pound person.

5 Health Benefits of Pilates

Classical Pilates is one of the complementary therapies used in sports medicine to treat patients with back pain and other injuries who cannot do conventional strength training exercises.

Pilates can be done either on special equipment with a Pilates instructor or on a mat in any convenient place.

Whatever type of Pilates you choose, you should follow these five principles: centering, concentration, control, precision, breathing, and flow. Together, they create benefits that can only be reaped by dedicated practitioners in a regular long-term practice.

#1 Strengthening muscles

With a certified personal trainer and proper nutrition, regular Pilates classes will help you achieve muscle definition in your abs and hips and even make you look fitter long before you see changes on the scale.

Pilates exercises flow into each other to build strength and stamina. The results of a recent study concluded that mat Pilates training results in strength and flexibility gains in both the lower and upper body for women who have undergone breast cancer treatment.

#2 Relaxation and stress management

While you exercise, you learn breathing techniques to calm your mind and de-stress your body.

It is an excellent way to manage stress, unwind, focus and enjoy your body. After all, weight loss works better when you’re not stressed.

Studies of people who practiced Pilates on a mat for one hour twice a week for 6 months found that their life satisfaction increased. Also, they felt confident about the way they looked, how flexible their bodies were, and how others perceived them.

#3 Improving flexibility and balance

The goal of Pilates is to make precise movement second nature. All muscles work together in Pilates to align the joints and promote a range of motion.

You’ll move effortlessly when you master Pilates since its exercise routine strengthens and stretches your muscles at the same time. Unlike conventional strength training, muscles get longer, not wider, creating the illusion of a slimmer body.

#4 Better posture

A person’s posture can tell you a lot about their health. People who slouch lose strength in their back muscles, causing pressure and pain in other parts of their bodies, especially if they are overweight. This can eventually cause their spine to curve and can happen naturally as people age.

As you do Pilates, you strengthen muscle groups on each side of your body, activate them during movement, and learn how to balance the weight. As a result, you get a good posture which helps you sit or stand for longer, have fewer headaches, and sleep better.

Study results show that Pilates can significantly improve posture in adult women if they practice for at least 6 months.

#5 Suitable for everyone

Because Pilates does not require preconditions, anyone can do it, regardless of age or weight. This includes people with medical conditions, for whom it might be unsafe to do other types of exercise.

People with lower back pain will experience the most benefits from practicing Pilates because it was originally designed for them.

Pilates for Weight Loss FAQs

Conclusion

By improving your ability to concentrate, teaching you breathing techniques that help release tension, as well as strengthening your core and correcting your posture, Pilates benefits the mind and body.

Over time, a Pilates program can result in weight loss and greatly reduce body fat and BMI in obese or overweight adults. At an advanced level, it can also help build lean muscle mass.

To lose weight quickly, however, it is not enough to do Pilates alone. You have to exercise regularly and make sure you alternate Pilates with high-intensity interval training and maintain a calorie deficit.

Weight loss is a mental process that requires changing your habits and making healthier choices, limiting yourself from overindulging in food. This is the only way to make your body burn fat and lose weight.