Key Takeaways. Among other benefits, regular sauna use can help relax muscles, improve blood flow, and bolster skin health. The recommended length of time to spend in a sauna is 15-20 minutes. First-timers should start with 5-10 minutes.
Studies show it is perfectly safe to use saunas every day, just being mindful to stay hydrated during your sessions. Though daily sauna use is not harmful, prolonged single sauna sessions can increase the risk of dehydration.
Facilities offering sauna bathing often claim health benefits that include detoxification, increased metabolism, weight loss, increased blood circulation, pain reduction, antiaging, skin rejuvenation, improved cardiovascular function, improved immune function, improved sleep, stress management, and relaxation.
It is believed that sitting in a sauna can help you reduce excess fat. If you also believe in this, then you are absolutely incorrect. A sauna does not help you to lose weight; it temporarily removes easily replaceable water from the body. Excessive heat makes your body sweat and sweating can make you lose fluid.
The sauna/steam room should be used “2-3 times a week for no more than 10-20 minutes at a time,” Jay says. Some individuals like to opt for intervals. “You can do 15 to 20 minutes inside the room, take a 5 minute break outside the room, and then go back inside, repeating this for 3-4 cycles.”
Collagen — the protein in our skin responsible for elasticity — gets a healthy kick when you spend time in a sauna. The hot air combined with moisture enhances collagen production to help rejuvenate your complexion. The heat increase also allows your skin to shed dead skin cells and make way for new, healthier ones.
Does A Sauna Suit Help Lose Weight? Sauna suits have been proven to be an effective means of losing weight, however, they're limited when it comes to just how much weight you can lose. In a session, your body sheds excess water weight in the form of perspiration, but that is where the weight loss stops.
Studies have shown that our metabolic rate can increase by around 30% after an hour-long sauna session. The higher our metabolic rate, the more calories we are burning.
Sauna benefits include reducing facial fat to normal levels. Especially the excess fat accumulated in the neck area will begin to disappear with the effect of the sauna.
Before the sauna, we recommend drinking 1-2 glasses of water to prep your body for the upcoming sweat sesh. After the sauna, you want to continue to drink water, but you also want to replenish those key minerals and electrolytes lost like magnesium, sodium, calcium, and potassium.
If you're entering a steam room, then the moisture in the air will be much higher. Therefore a steam room is not ideal for bringing in phones. A public sauna is also not a great place to take your phone for similar reasons and we'd recommend leaving it in the changing room with your clothes.
Because you sweat during your session and toxins are released, having a shower after your sauna will help to cleanse the skin and close pores. A cold shower after your sauna can also activate cold shock proteins in the body, which may help assimilate fat for weight loss.
Sauna vs Steam Room
Saunas are excellent for relaxation and relieving tense muscles. Meanwhile, steam rooms have further benefits from the moist heat and humidity such as skin moisturizing, congestion relief, and reduced muscle soreness.
Also, saunas are known to help tighten and tone the skin. It also reduces acne scars, stretch marks and sagging skin. Saunas tighten the skin by helping to boost elastin production. Elastin is a key protein that determines how supple or firm your skin is.
As the sauna calculator mentioned above shows, sitting in a sauna 30 minutes a day can burn anywhere from 46 calories on the low end to 600 calories on the high end. This isn't enough to lose multiple pounds (or even 1 pound) in a single sitting.
Under the high-heat provided by a sauna, the body releases endorphins which can minimize pain and is often associated with a “runner's high.” As the body temperature rises in the heat of the sauna, blood vessels dilate allowing for increased blood circulation, which in turn speeds the body's natural healing process.
While saunas can help you lose weight, they do not necessarily make you look leaner. When you sit in a sauna, you lose water weight through sweating, which can make you appear thinner temporarily. However, this effect is only temporary, and the weight loss is quickly regained once you rehydrate.
The sweating that happens in a sauna, steam room or hot-room yoga class is more profuse than typical exercise. Exercise is beneficial because of the sweating that happens as a result of moving more vigorously, but sauna therapy is beneficial after exercise to soothe and relax the muscles.
To make the most of the weight loss benefits associated with a sauna, you should start with 15 to 20 minute sessions a couple of times a week and build up to daily sessions. The easiest way to do this is to invest in a sauna for your home.
Wear a sauna suit or a sauna belt to aid you in your weight loss journey.
Spending 15-30 minutes in a sauna will allow you to burn 1.5 – 2 times the calories you would sitting anywhere else. So, the average 150lb woman would lose around 68 calories every 30 minutes in a sauna. Sauna bathing can definitely change the way you live. They promote mental and physical well-being.
A two-phase study from the Binghamton University in New York shows that people who used a sauna three times a week were able to reduce their body fat index by 4% over a four-month period.