Does Belly Dance Make you Lose Weight?

I get asked this question a lot! Short answer is, it can but here’s a better response to why belly dance is the ideal activity for women’s health and fitness.

I (Kaleena) have been a certified personal trainer for over a decade and lost 50lbs with diet and exercise but it wasn’t until I started to belly dance that I truly loved my body and felt confident in my own skin.

Belly Dance is one of the BEST Exercises for Women 

• • Work your Abs
    Belly dance is earthy, centered and grounded. To learn this dance you use your core. This is an exercise that strengthens your abdominal muscles in a low impact way, and having strong abs and good posture (we go through posture every class) not only prevents falls and injuries by improving your balance but it will make you appear taller, and slimmer (and proud! Rawr!).

• • Full Body Toning
    Despite being called belly dance this is an art form that uses the arms and traveling steps frequently. You will find that you work muscles you didn’t even know existed, and you will be moving and burning calories, while toning your entire body.

• • Gain Confidence
    This is THE MOST IMPORTANT benefit to belly dance as far as I’m concerned. What good is weight loss if you are still not accepting your body? After losing weight I was underweight and felt even more self-conscious than ever before. Belly dance taught me to LOVE my curves, embrace the jiggle and recognize that every body is beautiful!

• • Be Elegant and Graceful
    With belly dance you will learn how to move with elegance and grace. You feel like a queen even when you are walking down the grocery aisle. You will be stunned with how these qualities are IN YOU ALREADY! Belly dance just brings them out. When I started I felt like I had two left feet and no coordination. If I can do it, trust me, so can you!

• Stop Caring About Weight Loss
  You will never believe it’s possible because as women we always want to improve our appearance and this equates to losing weight but belly dance truly helps us to get past this obsession with weight loss. When you accept your body, start to see “imperfections” as what makes you unique and see that every body type is moving beautifully in class, you will stop caring about whether or not you will lose weight because you will be too busy reveling in the other benefits (many more I didn’t write about here!) and you will  free yourself up for more important aspects of personal development, creativity, and making your entire being strong and healthy.

Visit our studio at 162 Union Street in Saint John and try your first class free.

LUNA Belly Dance