Can Saunas Make You Lose Body Weight?

There is a lot of misinformation being relayed around in the fitness industry. While we are aware misinformation touches on almost all aspects of the fitness industry, one of the places where information gets distorted so much has got to do with the saunas. 

Saunas remain one of the most popular therapies that are being used both by athletes and the general public. Time in the sauna feels immensely great and comes with lots of health benefits. All you do in a sauna is let your body sweat, and enjoy the dehydration process. 

However, we feel that despite saunas having tons of health benefits, some sources vastly exaggerated the idea that you can shed a lot of weight by just immersing yourself in a sauna. 

While there are different types of saunas depending on how the room is heated, the question as to whether one can lose weight in a sauna bothers many people. 

Exaggerated figures

We can all agree that saunas have positive health benefits which anybody would want to get. There are claims that you can lose between 300 to 1000 calories by spending just 30 minutes in a sauna. 

We wish this could be true. 

However, it’s ridiculous to claim that just kicking back on your bum in a hot room for slightly over thirty minutes can help you shed such an amount of calories. 

You see, 

Any person who has ever had a run on the treadmill will agree that burning a rate of 14 calories per minute is no means feat. It’s not only too high to achieve, but equally hard to sustain. 

It is true that your body has to work extra hard to maintain its preferred temperature. By maintaining its body temperature, the metabolism process can begin using the available calories. 

However, it’s also near to impossible that such activity would cause you to use any more than double the rate of calories for doing exactly what it is that you do in a sauna or steam room; sitting.

Can saunas make you lose weight?

The answer is yes. However, you wouldn’t lose as much weight as you’d have done while wearing sauna vests for men, or just doing the normal exercise. 

In a sauna, you aren’t burning a significantly raised amount of calories. Instead, you are only losing water weight, which makes losing actual body weight hard because of dehydration. 

Many people might nor know but the weight you lose in a sauna is purely water. Interestingly, the water you lose should be replaced almost immediately, which rarely happens for people who are in saunas. 

The truth is that there is a tiny bit of weight loss that happens when you’re in a sauna. You lose weight because you are sweating off water weight but the weight returns once you begin drinking water again. 

Takeaway;

The sauna has numerous health benefits, one among them weight loss. However, don’t over rely on sweat sessions alone to shed off extra weight. Unless you are using sauna vests, it’s not an ideal tool for real weight loss.