Diving into everything you needed to know about utilizing saunas for weight loss. How to utilize this great trick for shedding unwanted pounds fast.
In the United States, the vast majority of adults are either overweight or obese.
Whether you have a lot of weight to lose or you’re just looking to shed a few extra pounds, you’ve probably searched around for easy, fast weight loss methods.
Maybe you’ve heard that using saunas can help with losing weight fast. Is it true?
Keep reading and we’ll learn more about saunas and whether you should use saunas for weightloss.
What Are Saunas?
Saunas are places built and designed to hold sessions of either dry or wet heat.
The word sauna comes to us from Finland, where the practice dates back thousands of years. An important part of Finnish culture, there are over 3 million saunas in Finland. At a population of about 5 million people, that means there’s about one sauna per household.
Saunas in Finland are used regularly and were historically the setting for major life events. Babies were often born , purification rituals were held before marriage, and even the bodies of the dead were prepared for burial in saunas.
The Finnish weren’t the only people to utilize the benefits of heat in this manner.
Sweat lodges were used by indigenous people throughout North and Central America. Though the building materials and specific designs of these sweat lodges varied from culture to culture, these saunas held an important place in ceremonial and spiritual life.
What Are the Different Types of Saunas?
Depending on what you’re looking for out of a sauna session, you might prefer one type of sauna over another.
Traditional Finnish saunas are wood burning saunas. Woodstoves are used to heat the rocks and create a dry heat. If wet heat is desired, water can be thrown on the rocks to create steam.
There are also dry saunas that are heated using electricity rather than firewood. In Finland nowadays, most people use electric saunas because they’re safe, efficient, easy to use, and quite stylish.
Steam saunas have a 100% humidity and a much lower temperature than dry saunas. The experience of using a steam room is a lot different than a dry sauna. While the temperature is lower, the humidity will still lead you to sweat a lot.
Another popular form of sauna is the infrared sauna. Rather than heating the air in the room, infrared saunas focus on heating your body. Through the use of infrared lamps, the heat can penetrate deeper into your body without making the room itself excessively hot.
Are Saunas Safe to Use?
Saunas are generally safe to use, but people with existing cardiovascular problems, poorly controlled blood pressure, or pregnant women should consult with their doctor before using saunas.
In order to safely use a sauna, you’ll want to make sure that you’re properly hydrated before entering a session. If you haven’t drank enough water, sauna use can lead to dehydration.
It’s also important to never use a sauna after having consumed alcohol. Minor and major accidents can occur such as fainting and chardiac arrhythmias could result from drinking before or during a sauna session. Ever year, it’s estimated that 20 to 25 sauna-related deaths occur with alcohol as a contributing factor.
The Benefits of Regular Sauna Use
Sauna use isn’t just a relaxing hobby. It can help you reduce your stress levels in the long term, which is great because stress can lead to a long list of health problems. If you’re looking for a healthy pasttime that helps create feelings of well-being, sauna sessions are a great habitual practice.
There are several studies that suggest that sauna use might be linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular events. Beyond this, they can help improve circulation, assist in clearing up skin problems, help you find relief from asthma, and might lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
If all that doesn’t sell you on incorporating sauna sessions into your gym routine, try this one on for size. One study found that frequent visits to a sauna were associated with a longer lifespan.
Can Suanas Help You Shed Pounds Fast?
While suanas can definitely help you lose a few pounds in water weight right away through sweating, the jury is still out on whether or not they help you lose weight beyond that.
Having a sauna session to shed extra pounds is a popular method for boxers and wrestlers before their weigh-ins. This can help them make the right weight for a specific weight class. That being said, this water weight will be gained back once you drink or eat anything.
Some people believe that saunas help you lose weight through raising your body temperature. The argument is that raising your body temperature increases your metabolism which helps you burn calories faster.
Others say that using saunas is not a method of quick weight loss. Other than the few pounds you will lose in water weight directly after a session, they argue that saunas won’t lead to losing weight fast.
If you’re interested in the potentials of losing weight through sauna use, this article is a helpful resource to learn more.
Saunas For Weightloss: It’s Not a Miracle Worker
While there are a lot of reasons to incorporate sauna sessions into your life, you shouldn’t expect that you’ll walk out of one fifty pounds lighter. While they may help you burn calories faster, you’ll want to combine sauna use with other exercise and diet weight loss tactics to meet your weight loss goals.
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