Weight-loss: How Pilates Can Help

Many celebrities have credited Pilates with helping them lose weight. They range from Liz Hurley, Kelly Brook, and Hilary Swank to Sophie Dahl, Tracy-Ann Oberman and novelist Rosie Thomas. 

Burning calories is, of course, not the main focus of Pilates but Pilates can, nonetheless, be a surprisingly effective part of a weight-less programme, especially if accompanied by healthy eating and some cardiovascular exercise. 

Among the reasons is that your body continues to burn fat long after you have exercised. Pilates also strengthens your abdominal and other muscles and speeds up your metabolism. Muscle is metabolically active whereas fat is not.

Pilates also lengthens muscle and improves posture, which in turn tends to make you look longer and leaner. It can also tighten your waistline, even when you haven’t lost any weight on the scales.

When Felicity Kendal, the evergreen actress and Pilates devotee now in her sixties, appeared in a recent series of Strictly Come Dancing, she wowed viewers with her slimline body and supple routines, such as performing the splits during her dances.