Does more sweat mean you burn calories faster?

Does one stay in a sauna burn the same amount of calories as morning jogging? In both cases your body will be soaked in sweat. But it’s physical activity that is recommended during dieting, not sauna. Not without a reason.

Everyone who decides to lose weight dreams that uncomfortable process of dieting to last as briefly as possible. This is the reason why people are trying to find ways of maximizing the amount of burned calories - from more or less effective diet supplements to the ideas of running in the heat in winter jacket or putting special slimmer belts on waist which increase skin sweating in that part of body. Unfortunately, many of these ideas don’t work, but what’s worse some of them can cause serious health impairment.

Why do we sweat?

Perspiration is your body’s way of regulating its temperature - water steaming from your skin cools your body. But there’s a huge difference between sweating in the sauna or at the beach and sweating during physical activity.

When we stand still in high-temperature, hot air heats our body and raises its temperature. So our body is heated from the outside. During the exertion body temperature raises because of intensive muscle work, so from the inside.

Does sweating increase calories burning?

Yes. Similarly as the need of warming up your body. Remaining in too high or too low temperature (although it doesn’t cause sweating) pushes organism to exertion in order to keep normal temperature of the body. But neither in the first nor in the second situation will you burn more calories than during physical exertion.

Saunas manufacturers encourage to use them pointing to the fact that one session in sauna can effect in burning even 300 kcal. And that even coincides with the studies of the US military scientists. But such calories burning doesn’t effect in fat tissue loss.

Excessive sweating causes a big loss of water from our organisms and that’s why after visiting sauna our weight can show even 0,5 kilogram less.

But it’s not a fat tissue loss! After drinking 1-2 glasses of liquid, what is recommended after sauna, your weight will be exactly the same as before.

Be patient and don’t cut corners!

While wearing a slimming belt on your waist which increases sweating rather won’t do you any harm (but at the same time rather won’t help) ideas of wearing warm clothes during activity can be really dangerous, because they impede reducing the body temperature.

Result? Overheated organism - headaches and dizziness, nausea and vomiting, vision impairment, abnormal heart rates and breathing disturbances, or even loss of consciousness.

Sauna isn’t a good idea for losing weight because it doesn’t cause a fat tissue loss. Pushing your body to excessive sweating through using various accessories and wearing too warm clothes for exercises is inefficient and can be health damaging. It’s not worth risking.

Everything needs time. Losing extra kilograms also. Instead of cutting corners it’s better to keep the diet and work out reasonably. And consistently!

*This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information contained herein is not a substitute for and should never be relied upon for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment.