Saunas are commonly associated with increased weight loss through their regular use. While Sauna use does trigger responses in the body that can help you lose weight more effectively, there are many other benefits that come with regular use! Saunas are one of the most effective ways to naturally sweat out toxins from your body, reduce pain in the body naturally, relax, and act as a natural anti-depressant.
If you’re considering a Sauna for weight loss, like many of our clients, you’ll likely come to appreciate the other less talked about benefits of Sauna over regular use. A Sauna is one of the best natural remedies on the market for a variety of health issues.
When asking yourself if you should buy a Sauna to help with weight loss, we suggest pairing it with other lifestyle changes that will make a tremendous difference in your health journey.
Make your Sauna more effective by changing these lifestyle habits:
- Start a regular exercise routine, even something as simple as daily walks!
- Change up your eating habits, cut out fast food and cook at home more frequently
- Maintain a consistent sleep schedule
Saunas are not just a great tool for shedding water and toxins from your body. Regular use promotes muscle recovery, relaxation, and can even help you get a more restful nights sleep!
Saunas And Their Effects On Weight Loss
If you’re considering buying a Sauna specifically to attempt losing weight, we hope that we can help reframe your approach slightly through the contents of this article, as Saunas deliver far more health benefits than simply shedding some water (and losing weight) through regular use.
Saunas are traditionally designed to deliver high heat and humidity, increasing the amount of water that is lost throughout regular use. While this does actually reduce weight, it’s critical that you replenish your body with the water and electrolytes lost during their use. Installing a sauna in your home for weight loss may be the initial reason you decide to purchase one, however, we can almost guarantee that you will come to love saunas for their other benefits outside of weight reduction.
Sweating Out Water And Toxins In A Sauna
If you’re new to the world of Sauna, we strongly suggest starting slow. Better yet, consider consulting a doctor prior to regular Sauna use. For us, we’ve been taking Sauna all our lives and our heat tolerance is likely much greater than somebody just starting out. And there’s no need to force yourself to do 30 minute sauna sessions right off the bat!
Start slow, work your way up and remember to take frequent breaks. For somebody new to utilizing a Sauna, I always suggest 10 minutes in, 10 minutes out. Let your body tell you what feels good and take 1-2 rounds in the Sauna your first handful of times. You own one now, so you’ll be able to use it whenever you like!
How Much Water Weight Can I Lose In A Sauna?
While every body is different, water weight is lost quickly in a Sauna. Depending on your body type, you may lose 1-2 pounds of water weight (or more) in a single sauna session. In some cases, it’s possible to shed up to 5 lbs (or more) of water weight in a single sauna session.
While losing water weight is great, it’s important to replenish your body after leaving the sauna. Increase water and nutrient intake to ensure proper recovery, while giving your body everything it needs to remain healthy.
First things first, lost water weight will not last. This is a given. It’s water weight, it comes and goes and fluctuates even in normal situations. So after a sauna session, it will inevitably come back and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Sweating Out Toxins In A Sauna
When you’re in the Sauna, your body naturally rids itself of certain toxins while going through it’s natural sweating process. The amount of sweating you’ll have is far greater in a traditional steam sauna than that of an infrared sauna. This is one of the best parts of Sauna use! The feeling of relaxation you’ll have after stepping out of the Sauna and taking a cool shower or bath is truly unmatched. There is no alternative to traditional Sauna use and they’ve been popular amongst Scandinavians for centuries.
How Many Minutes In A Sauna For Weight Loss?
We’ve covered Sauna use extensively in another guide, so the answer to this will be relatively brief.
If you’re new to Sauna, we recommend starting slow. Do a few rounds of 10 minutes in the sauna, 10 minutes out recovering. Saunas can help you lose weight over the long term through their consistent use, look at it as a marathon and not a sprint. We do not encourage new Sauna users to force themselves to remain in a sauna simply to sweat out more water weight.
Physical Metabolism
We must keep in mind that everyone’s body is different. Bodies react in different ways to the heat in the sauna. You might not be a person who sweats a lot, so using a sauna to lose weight may not be as viable an option for you as it would be for another person. You could just get overheated all for nothing and the sauna treatment may even cause more harm than good.
Alternatively, your body may have a low tolerance for heat. There are a lot of health hazards when it comes to heat induction by artificial methods or overheating for a body of this kind. You may have nausea, lightheadedness, dizziness, you may pass out, go into a coma and even die. Thousands of people die from heat strokes or heat caused a hemorrhage in the brain every year. So, you have to take into account your body’s reaction to heat and then decide if you want to lose weight in a sauna.
Electrolyte Balancing
The electrolyte balance in your body is closely connected with the amount of water you have in your body. The more salt or electrolytes you have in your body, the more water it will retain. Side by side with this, your electrolyte amount is also connected with your muscular function. You don’t want to lose too many electrolytes because that will definitely make you lose bodily function in all areas, from sensory perception to the ability to exert your body to do anything even remotely strenuous.
It’s critical that you ensure you’re drinking water in a Sauna. Your body will naturally sweat out a large quantity of water and replacing it is necessary after you’ve exited the Sauna.
Body Mass Index
Another thing to factor into your consideration before you decide you want to lose water weight in a sauna is that the effect the sauna will have on your body will be definitely impacted by your body mass. Your weight, height, how old you are, even the way water is distributed inside your body will have an effect on how you can weight in the sauna. The best thing to do is to ask a doctor if it’s possible for you.
Can I Lose Two Pounds Of Weight In A Sauna?
While it’s entirely possible that you sweat out 2 pounds of water weight in a sauna, it must be replaced after the fact. It’s not true weight loss, but through improved metabolism that can result from consistent Sauna use, your body has been proven to improve it’s overall health over consistent Sauna use.
Saunas do help you burn more calories, which can aid in increased weight loss. The study we’ve linked below shows how consistent Sauna use triggers multiple physiological and neurological mechanisms in the body that correlate to increased weight loss.
Sauna For Quick Weight Loss
If you’re interested in buying a Sauna for losing weight, we’d suggest reframing your mindset a bit and focusing on the other far more important benefits that will come out of consistent Sauna use.
Some of these other far more important Sauna benefits include:
- Improved cardiovascular health
- Alzheimers prevention (study that found 65% reduction in Alzheimers onset)
- Aid in pain relief
- Stress reduction
- Natural anti-depressant
- Burn more calories
Things You Need To Do After Taking A Sauna
- Drink water
- Relax, take a cool bath or shower
After you come out of the sauna to lose weight, you may dry off with a towel, but do not take a shower however gross you may feel. This is because the shower may cause your skin to reabsorb water through your skin’s pores and you may regain lost water weight. The best way to take your body back to normal temperature is to slowly put it in successively lower temperature environments and gradually bring it back to normal temperature because it is harmful if you immediately expose your body to cold air after you come out of the sauna. When you’re out and dried up, it is now time to go to that weigh-in and use your water weight loss to your advantage.
How To Regain Lost Water Weight
To regain lost water weight you should drink water and continue to eat properly. A full meal consisting of a good portion of carbohydrates proteins and most importantly, minerals and salts, is the way to go after you undergo a rapid weight loss procedure. That and a good night’s sleep will restore your body to normal temperature in no time.
How To Deal With Heat-Related Difficulties
If you’re feeling nauseous or dizzy during the course of your sauna to lose two pounds or more, and you don’t want to take a break yet, you can use your cold water bucket to keep close to your face and breathe near it. You must be able to resist the temptation of having cold water near you in such an environment, however. You can also try putting your head between your knees.
If the situation worsens and the nauseous feeling isn’t going away, you should take a break and go outside the sauna for a breather and a glass of water. Then, when you feel better, you can go back in and continue the process.
If that doesn’t work and you keep feeling worse, you should immediately consult a doctor or any other health care professional nearby.
Don’t Own A Sauna Yet? Call Us With Questions!
Hopefully, you’ve ended up here excited about owning a Sauna yourself. Many folks don’t realize that they can put one of our plug and play models (either traditional or infrared, or a combo of both) in their home and utilize it with standard power. It’s entirely possible and with our smallest units having a footprint of just 16 square feet and 72″ tall, putting one just about anywhere in your home or apartment is simple.
If you’ve gotten this far and have decided Sauna isn’t for you, that’s OK too! We hope you enjoyed reading this and sharing some of our passion for Sauna. Should you change your mind in the future, we hope you consider us when buying a Sauna!