The issue of just how many calories someone will burn in the sauna remains extremely subjective, depending, you might guess, on a persons health status, and things like weight and heat tolerance. While there is no definitive, agreed-upon answer on the question of how many calories do you burn inside a sauna, what we do know is that someone sitting inside one will burn more calories than that same person sitting outside at room temperature. In fact, many health experts agree that an average person will burn between 1.5 and 2 times as many calories in a sauna as they otherwise would, all else being equal.
In short, although saunas indeed boost calorie burning, they are not an effective method for losing weight. Because of the burning, we can say saunas are effective at burning calories, just not as many calories as some would like. Saunas also do not boost metabolism, nor will they make you burn more calories or fat, so unfortunately, sitting in a sauna alone is not going to make you lose weight.
The true beauty of using saunas to lose weight is that your body continues burning calories longer — for hours after leaving the sauna. When burning calories in the sauna, do not expect to suck off hundreds of calories during one session just sitting there.
Exercise is a great way to build up your fitness and challenge yourself, but using an infrared sauna is going to be a good way to get those calories burned quickly. If you are looking for a way to rid your body of toxins and burn calories at the same time, you cannot find a better, safer solution than basking in sweat in an infrared sauna. Whether you would like to lose weight, cleanse your skin, sleep better, detox, or just relax after a long day, an infrared sauna benefits your health in a number of ways that we discuss below.
Using a sauna on its own is not going to create dramatic results for weight loss, but, when used in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, it may increase the effects of your diet and exercise. Whether it is done directly or indirectly, using a sauna regularly may help you reach your weight loss goals and burn extra calories over time. Generally, getting two to three sauna sessions per week over the course of two weeks will help jump-start weight loss. If you have a sauna, or are considering getting one, you may enjoy weight-loss benefits on top of the general health benefits of soaking in heat.
To help you permanently lose weight, a sauna increases the temperature of your body, which causes your body to boost its metabolism rate by 20%. The boost will let you keep burning calories for as long as several hours after spending time in the sauna. Your heart rate may rise about 30% during your time in the sauna, which may result in more calories burned.
Just because your heart is beating faster, and even sweating more, while you are in a sauna, does not mean your metabolism is increasing, either, and that you are burning more calories — this is just false reasoning. In reality, your metabolism actually increases a little bit while in the sauna, but sometimes you hear extravagant claims like 30 minutes in a sauna burns as many calories as moderate exercise. To figure the highest amount of calories that a sauna session will burn, multiply the amount of calories burned during 30 minutes of sitting down by two, not one and a half.
To find the amount this same person burned sitting in a sauna, multiply 42 calories by 1.5 and two for a rough estimate. With the numbers produced from these two calculations, you will have an overall range that you can use to estimate how many calories you would burn while sitting in the sauna. How many calories you burn in the sauna will depend on your unique body, and the amount of energy you expend when sweating.
This means that, without doing any actual physical activity, you can nearly double your bodys capacity for metabolizing calories — and, as you will find in a minute, fat — by simply sitting down to take a nap in a sauna. There is some truth in this, but in no way would this cause you to consume any more than twice your caloric expenditure to perform just what it is you are doing in the sauna or steam room; sitting. Keep in mind, although sauna sweating may burn more calories than sitting in room temperature spaces, it cannot help you to rapidly drop body fat. While the amount of calories burned when sitting in a sauna is higher than those burned when sitting in a room-temperature environment, the difference is not enough to trigger burning through your fat reserves.
In theory, infrared saunas are designed to penetrate skin and burn fat by warming you so your body has to work harder to cool down–something that has been linked with weight loss by people. Science has shown over the past few years that the actual weight-loss benefits of infrared saunas, specifically, are far deeper than simply losing water weight by perspiration; they may actually boost your bodys metabolism and ability to remove fat and toxins from the skin below the surface. While saunas cannot help people lose weight directly, they may help them keep their bodyweight in check while also decreasing their stress levels. What saunas *can* do is temporarily increase heart rate, calories burned, and water lost, all the while decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation, all of which may help promote overall healthier bodies and weights.
One small study published in Springer Plus suggests the heat of infrared saunas may enhance recovery after exercising – so if that kickboxing class you took left you sore for days, sitting down for a soak might make you feel better. Exercise, which is also a stressor that produces heat-shocking proteins, followed by a sauna session is a good way to improve your muscle gains. A single session of an infrared sauna, lasting about 30 minutes and ranging in temperature between 120 and 150 degrees, can help a person burn up to 600 calories, according to JNH Lifestyles.
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