When it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and body weight, most experts advise people to exercise more and eat better. Losing weight makes us feel more confident, allows us to fit into our clothes better, and gives us more energy to spend time doing the things we love. While exercising and eating better is a widely known solution to losing weight, people across the world are looking for alternative methods. This has prompted many individuals to wonder, “do saunas help you lose weight?”
While developing a healthy diet and exercise routine might work for some people, it can be a challenging effort for others to maintain. Luckily, there is another way to help with your weight loss goals – using an infrared sauna!
For centuries, people have been using heat therapy and saunas to improve health. In Japan they have onsens, in Turkey they have baths, and in Finland, there are dry saunas. Recent clinical evidence suggests that heat therapy is very effective with the following:
- enhancing cardiovascular health
- eliminating chemicals and heavy metals
- relieving arthritis and muscular pain
- diminishing chronic fatigue and depression
When it comes to achieving body fitness, you can use the sauna to lose weight through sweating. An infrared sauna heats you from the inside out by using infrared light, which cannot be seen. The infrared light used in a sauna is similar to the infrared light produced by the sun, except that it does not emit ultraviolet rays, so it is completely harmless.
How Do Saunas Help You Lose Weight?
One study on the effects of sauna use exposed participants to 45 minutes per day in an infrared sauna and measured the changes in body temperature, physiological functions, and long-term body weight.
The first group of participants held 45-minute sauna sessions three times a week for 4 months. The result of this sauna use was a massive 4% reduction in body fat. Keep in mind that this data did not show a 4% decrease in total body weight but a 4% decrease in body fat, which is what matters for long-term benefits.
In the second phase of research, the weekly frequency of sauna sessions increased to 5 times a week but reduced from 45 minutes to 30 minutes and the program length went from 4 months to 2 months. In about half the time, these participants also achieved a 4% reduction in body fat.
Through analyzing the data from this study, researchers realized that participants who used the sauna during the afternoon had lost significantly more body fat than those who used the sauna in the morning. Researchers confirmed the body fat changes by measurements of serum glucose levels.
The study also revealed that the core body temperature will influence human growth hormone (HGH) production which, in turn, increases serum glucose levels. Also, they found that a higher core body temperature contributed to a larger decrease in body fat, which confirmed the HGH hypothesis.
How Much Weight Can I Lose In A Sauna?
This is the question that usually follows “do saunas help you lose weight?” The answer is complicated since there are a lot of factors that go into sauna weight loss. This includes your current starting weight, your eating habits, and your exercise routine. Similar to the fact that there is no one diet for every person, there is no one specific number of pounds lost during an infrared sauna session. Some sauna sessions have proven to burn as much as 600 calories, which is similar to an hour-long jogging session on a treadmill.
How Do I Use A Sauna For Weight Loss?
The most popular way to lose weight in an infrared sauna is to just relax, unwind, and sweat. However, there are many other ways to improve your session and weight loss potential; for instance, doing hot yoga in your infrared sauna. This not only increases your weight loss potential, but it also provides a variety of other health benefits such as flexibility and improved sleep. If hot yoga sounds too taxing, think about adding a mild stretching session to your sauna experience.
Doing a low impact workout in the sauna helps to increase your body’s core temperature slightly, which effectively helps with weight loss.
What Is The Difference Between Steam Sauna And Infrared Sauna Weight Loss?
A traditional sauna utilizes wet or dry heat to warm the surrounding air, which makes you sweat. This can help with weight loss, but only through the loss of a little water weight.
On the other hand, an infrared sauna heats the body from the inside out, which lets you stay in the sauna longer and increases your heart rate. An infrared sauna session results in more calories burned in a shorter period of time.
Furthermore, infrared heat is produced by far-infrared wavelength to almost 9.4 microns, which is the level at which the human body absorbs infrared energy. Also, this is the frequency at which a water molecule resonates or vibrates. As a result of these vibrations, there is a release of cellular toxins. This optimal micron output also permits for deeper penetration of far-infrared heat, which enhances weight loss efforts.
In a nutshell, infrared saunas have proven to help in weight loss by heating the body’s core temperature to induce sweating. Increasing blood flow and heart rate (similar to moderate exercise) has been proven to help you lose weight. Furthermore, saunas can help you lose weight by easing aches and pains linked with weight training, which can help you return to the gym the following day.
