Does the Sauna Burn Calories?

Do saunas burn calories or is weight loss in a sauna a myth? Some people benefit from it, while others get an unnecessary load on the liver. It's different for everyone. People go to the sauna to lose weight! Yeah, that's right. Sweating is an effective way to lose weight. The popularity of different ways to lose weight with the help of baths and saunas is increasing every day. Do saunas really burn calories? How does it burn calories?

Do Saunas Burn Calories?

The effective fight against excess weight requires a comprehensive approach. The more action is taken to address this problem, the more likely it will be a quick and long-lasting outcome. Of course, the main methods of struggle always remain regular physical activity and adherence to the principles of a healthy and balanced diet. But carrying out various cosmetic and wellness procedures, such as sauna visits, can significantly speed up weight loss. Recently, infrared sauna has become extremely popular among those who want to lose weight and improve the health of the body and, we must say, not unreasonably.

Infrared sauna has many benefits, including burning calories. Your body temperature rises when you are in the sauna. You also burn more calories through sweating and an active metabolism. According to studies, sweat volume can be reduced by 0.6-1 kg/h in the sauna. This means that you can lose about a litre of bodily fluids per hour in the sauna. This is roughly equivalent to one kilogram of total body weight. Sauna speeds up your metabolism by 20%, which indirectly burns calories, but it should be used in conjunction with regular exercise. 

How Do Saunas Burn Calories?

How does sauna help you lose weight? But it's not because they destroy fat cells. It's all about perspiration. Under conditions of high temperature and humidity, a huge amount of excess moisture is removed from human tissues, along with harmful salts (weight loss of 1.5-2 kg per session is the norm). Being in the organism, these salts bind water and prevent fat burning in the metabolism process. Releasing the cells from ballast, we restart metabolism, transferring fat into the normal fuel category for this process.

Together with sweat in the infrared sauna, you lose unnecessary salt and liquid and also 0.5-1.5 kg of weight. The formation of sweat consumes energy. It is calculated that to evaporate 1 g of water, the body uses 0.58 calories of energy. The principle is clear: if you want to lose more weight, you should sweat more. 

In addition, in the sauna, the organism experiences the strongest stress due to hypothermia, increased temperature. At this time, protective mechanisms against overheating are activated – profuse sweating. Blood from internal organs rushes through small capillaries to the skin, the pulse increases, the heart works more often and more powerfully, kidneys, on the contrary, slow down, cells squeeze liquid into lymph, breathing becomes more frequent.

That the commander-in-chief 's brain realizes that it can't physically help anything, so it is partly in "OFF" mode. From the lack of oxygen and an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the blood, there is a false sense of coziness, tranquility, a slight euphoria! Naturally, this huge work of the body involves a great loss of energy, in fact, those very calories.

How Many Calories Do I Lose in a Sauna: Infrared vs Traditional

The main difference between traditional sauna and infrared sauna is the mechanism of air and body heating. The principle of the traditional sauna is based on first warming the air and then warming the body with this hot air. Infrared weight control sauna directly affects the body, and only one-fifth of the energy produced is used to warm the air, while 80% of the energy in a conventional sauna is spent on heating and maintaining the necessary air temperature. 

Thanks to this heating mechanism, the infrared sauna produces much more intense sweating than a normal sauna, so under the influence of infrared beams for weight loss, the body eliminates liquid and subcutaneous fat in the proportion of 80 to 20. For comparison, in a conventional sauna , the ratio is only 95 to 5. Based on these figures, the high effectiveness of infrared sauna in solving the problem of excess weight is obvious. 

On average, a 70 kg person loses 100-150 calories in 30 minutes in the bath, 250-300 calories in 60 minutes, and the same amount is consumed during a leisurely run or walk. But proponents of modern infrared saunas say it is possible to lose up to 600 calories in an hour while in an infrared sauna.

Infrared saunas have been studied and published by the American Medical Association. According to these studies, calorie loss depends on how long you are exposed to rays, the power of heat, and individual body parameters. The more obese a person is and the greater the percentage of fluid in the body, the greater the loss. In particular, 0.5 liters of sweat during heat treatment is used for approximately 300 kilocalories. This is similar to running 3.2-4.8 kilometers. At the same time, up to 3 liters of sweat can be released in the sauna.

The average for a full session is 1-1.5 liters of liquid or 600-800 kcal, which is spent without harming health. Expenditure on energy reserves falls mainly on the sweat evaporation process. The losses are compensated by normal water, so the calories consumed are not compensated.

Tips to Burn Calories in a Sauna Effectively and Safely

For the weight loss effect of sauna to be immediate and to reward you with good results, you need to follow the rules clearly and not deviate from them one step at a time. In addition, regularity plays an important role, as does the complexity of the approach. 

• You can't go to the sauna full or even just after dinner. A full stomach will certainly create an extra load on the heart, which is already at high temperatures, usually working at full capacity.
• Before going to the sauna for the first time, you should weigh yourself and record the readings in order to evaluate the results of losing weight in the sauna and adjust the course of the procedure. 
• The regularity of sauna procedures is 1-2 times a week. The duration of a visit should not exceed 15 minutes.
•  To quench a strong thirst, you should have a bottle of water.
•  That with the duration of the procedures in 2 hours, the weight loss reaches 4 kg of the initial body weight. If you feel physically unwell, all procedures should be terminated. After 5 hours, you are allowed to drink warm tea without sugar.
•  After the sauna, you can take a warm shower and rest in the anteroom for 15 minutes. To maintain body temperature, it is recommended to cover yourself with a warm sheet.
• Saunas should not be visited while intoxicated. In a number of diseases, they are completely contraindicated, as they can do more harm than good. If you have any illnesses, consult your doctor before visiting the sauna.
• If you consistently or regularly feel nausea, dizziness, headache, or even faint, then you must give up this weight loss completely.