When reports stated that Great British Bake Off host Nigella Lawson had lost two stone, she was quick to clarify that it hadn’t been the result of calorie cutting or extreme dieting. Instead, the chef, who was 55 at the time, credited one workout: Iyengar yoga.
‘It’s certainly true my weight went up – that happens in life sometimes,’ she told Good Housekeeping. ‘I have never been on a diet to try to lose weight. I feel like I haven’t lost weight, but I’m possibly in better shape. I am doing a rather slow form of yoga now called Iyengar.’
And if losing weight or improving your body composition without restricting yourself seems hard to believe, Lawson had some strong words of advice: ‘No one should be put on this earth to go on a diet! No one should eat themselves ill either. As you get on in life, you value feeling well as opposed to looking well. Yoga certainly makes you feel great, and you want to carry on feeling great. I just do a bit in a very slow way.’
Seven years on, she was still practicing. ‘I do it with a trainer who comes in the morning,’ the now 66-year-old said in a separate interview with Good Housekeeping in 2022. ‘I have to do something I enjoy, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.’
Iyengar yoga is one of the slowest forms of yoga that involves holding poses for longer, with a focus on precise alignment and controlled movement. It’s relatively low-intensity and while research has shown it has a lower energy expenditure (calorie burn) than faster styles of yoga like Vinyasa, it’s a stronger form of the practice that could therefore build muscle faster.
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Nigella Lawson at a book signing in 2018
By holding poses for longer, you build muscular strength and function; muscle is more metabolically active than fat, meaning the more you have, the more calories you burn at rest. This could explain Lawson’s claims that she was ‘in better shape’ after starting. (When someone mentions “being in shape”, they’re usually referring to having relatively low body fat and enough muscle definition to make the muscles visible.)
There’s another important lesson to take from Lawson’s approach. She said she genuinely enjoys Iyengar yoga and wouldn’t continue with it if she didn’t. Yes, Iyengar yoga might not be a particularly high-calorie-burning workout, but she’s found something she genuinely enjoys and can stay consistent with, which is far more effective than forcing yourself through a workout you hate and only going a couple of times a week. As cliche as it is, consistency really is key when it comes to seeing results.
Whatever form of exercise you choose, increasing your overall physical activity will increase the amount of energy you expend, which can support weight loss. Just make it something you like; punishment won’t get you anywhere.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.