Does The Sauna Help You Lose Weight? (Or is it Just a Bunch of Hot Air?)

If you have ever asked yourself the question “does the sauna help you lose weight” before, you can finally find your answer here.

The sweet and short answer is NO unless you’re talking about water weight, which can add up to about 5 pounds in one sauna session…

However, it’s not a 100% No if you incorporate sauna bathing with exercise sessions and a healthy diet. Let me explain.

There are a lot of things happening in your body when you get all sweaty in the sauna. Here I’m going to break down the things a sauna does to your body and why it does actually help you lose more weight.

Sauna to improve cardiovascular health

Even though this has nothing to do with weight loss, in my opinion, one of the most important reasons pro sauna is the improvement of the cardiovascular system.

It is common knowledge that anybody struggling with being overweight may increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Did you know that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the leading cause of death worldwide are Cardiovascular diseases? A whopping 32% of all global deaths are to blame on cardiovascular diseases, and of these deaths, heart attacks and strokes made up 85%.

A study made back in 2015 tracked 2,315 middle-aged men on how regular sauna bathing reduced the risk of sudden cardiac death, fatal cardiovascular diseases, and coronary heart disease. You can view the study here so I will not have to get into the details.

The bottom line of this study is that men who had 4 – 7 sauna bathing sessions per week (19+ minutes per session) compared with men who reported only 1 sauna bathing session per week showed a

63% lower risk of sudden cardiac death

50% lower risk of fatal cardiovascular diseases

48% lower risk of coronary heart disease

Researchers believe that one of the reasons these benefits are achieved is because of the increased heart rate. While being exposed to extreme heat, your heart rate increases and your blood vessels widen. This increases the blood circulation in your body, similar to low- to moderate-intensity exercise, depending on the duration of your sauna session.

Sauna to improve endurance

By having regular sauna sessions, your plasma and red blood cell count will increase. Red blood cells travel through your bloodstream and are responsible for delivering oxygen throughout your body.

In another study, researchers found that runners increased their time till exhaustion by 32% after undergoing sauna sessions regularly. It could link this to the fact that your body increases the production of nitric oxide, which is a molecule that’s naturally produced by your body. Its most important function is vasodilation, which means it relaxes the inner muscles of the blood vessels, causing them to widen and increase blood circulation.

So in a way, by using the sauna, you become able to do more exercise and increase your energy consumption.

Sauna to improve recovery time and muscle growth

Sauna sessions after your workout will improve your recovery time and muscle growth due to the increased levels of heat shock proteins and Human Growth Hormones (HGH). By having increased blood circulation, you will also have more oxygen-rich blood that flows into your muscles. We also know now that mitochondrial activity increases, which means more energy for your muscle cells. Just in case you don’t know what mitochondria are, they are also known as the cell’s Power Plants. By having mitochondria incorporated in your muscles, your muscle cells can increase the energy usage by more than 100 times almost instantly, which comes in handy when doing strenuous exercises.

So by increasing muscle mass, you will also increase your energy consumption while exercising.

Sauna to burn more calories

The hot environment of the sauna will increase your calorie usage by a bit because your body has to fight the heat and try to cool down. There are indications that regular sauna sessions can increase your metabolism, but this still has to be researched more. But as for now, many people believe in an increase in metabolism due to their sauna sessions.

So, back to the question “does the sauna help you lose weight?” I think it’s obvious to say it’s not only good for losing weight post-exercise but brings many health benefits as well.

To round it all up here are the key takeaways:

• Just sitting in the sauna and sweating your behind off will not effectively lose your body fat. It will rather be a short-term reduction of water weight.
• You can achieve more endurance by using the sauna on a regular basis and by doing that, you will have more effective workouts.
• You will help your muscles grow and recover after a workout, which will help you burn even more calories due to increased muscle mass.
• Even though it’s not fully researched, post-workout sauna sessions can help you elevate your calorie consumption even hours after leaving the sauna.

Did this information make you want to start sweating yourself back to health?

If your gym has a sauna, you should really consider using it. If not, there are small affordable saunas you could set up in your garage or house.