Things to Know About Using a Sauna for Weight Loss

Today, weight loss is one of the hardest things to understand with the busy lifestyles that people are leading today. For an ordinary working person, you have to juggle work and family, and you can hardly find time to exercise and lose weight. 

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Moreover, for some, stress can lead to binge eating, which can lead to more weight gain. You’ll have to be disciplined to follow a certain schedule so you balance work, family and working on yourself. 

It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, even a few minutes daily can go a long way. Some people say that saunas can help you lose weight. Read on to learn more about using saunas for weight loss.

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Things to Know About Using a Sauna for Weight Loss

Why Should You Use Saunas?

Saunas are very common in Scandinavia and other countries as a way of socializing. They are also recommended if you need to have a great sweat to clear your skin. 

After a long day at work, you will feel great when you unwind down with a visit to the sauna which will help you unclog your skin and relieve you of any day’s stress as you sweat it away. This explains why most community centers and gyms will have a sauna section.

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Types of Saunas

There are various types of saunas available today. These include wood saunas, which use wood-burning stoves to generate heat. These usually have low humidity and high temperatures. 

Electrically heated saunas utilize an electric heater mounted on the wall or floor to heat the room. Another type of saunas are steam rooms, which are also called “Turkish bath houses”. 

The last type is the infrared sauna, which uses infrared light waves to heat your body. It doesn’t have to heat the room, but just your body.

Do Saunas Cause Weight Loss?

It is said that as you sweat, you lose water weight through excess sweating. Since water has weight, after a 30-minute sauna time, you will weigh less because you have lost water weight. 

However, you have got to be careful as saunas can lead to dehydration due to too much water loss. This depends on how long you stay in the sauna. Therefore, it means if you feel thirsty and replace the water lost, you’ll gain it back. 

So the question remains – do saunas cause weight loss? To some extent, if you don’t replace the exact water weight that you lost through sweating.

It is also said the excess heat in saunas can help in burning extra calories. However, saunas are not an effective tool you can bank on to lose weight. You might want to consider other things, like the gym, running, or other forms of exercise.

Saunas and Dehydration

Things to Know About Using a Sauna for Weight Loss

Constant exposure of your body to extreme heat causes you to lose fluids through sweating. If you lose more fluids than your body is utilizing, it leads to dehydration. To avoid this, it is important you take in water before, during and after sauna sessions. 

It is also not advisable to go to sauna frequently as your exposing your body to extreme heat that might not be healthy. You are better off having about 2 sauna sessions in a week, so you give your skin time to heal.

If dehydration signs begin to set in like extreme thirst, dry and pale skin, not urinating frequently, dizziness or lightheadedness, dry mouth or headaches, then you are getting dehydrated. 

Dehydration signs worsen when it gets to severe dehydration that can lead to heat stroke. If you see these signs, avoid using a sauna for some time until you are well hydrated.

The Bottom Line

Much as some people say saunas cause weight loss, it is to small an amount and therefore you cannot rely on it for weight loss. Every time you are in a sauna and you sweat, you lose water weight, but when you drink more water after the session, you regain the weight.