For you sauna-savvy folks - calories burned?

[softthings]

sounds too good to be true. you might lose water weight through all the sweating, which would quickly come back. you are better off doing cardio or lifting weights to build muscle, muscle torches fat. when you work out, you burn more cals even when resting. i'm sure you would find lots of opinions if you googled it.

[tulip]

You'll lose water, and it's very important to stay hydrated, particularly if you are going to the sauna that often. Burning calories happens by moving, not by sitting. I think your sauna-mate was thinking wishfully.

Just enjoy it, drink plenty of water, but don't count on burning calories in there.

[Zen]

You're sitting, you're not burning calories.
Your body is cooling itself by sweating. I have no idea of actual calories used by this inactivity but I'm gonna guess the number o jelly beans in the jar and say 50 tops.

Calories are used as fuel for cellular respiration. Or I should say they are a unit of energy used during activity.
See electron transport chain

Nothing "melts fat cells". We are born with a certain number of fat cells. These cells can change size but they never disappear.

[zoom-zoom]

If anything I wonder if your body would burn fewer calories in a sauna. I know trying to stay warm in a cold room burns more calories at rest than sitting in a comfortable room. So I'm thinking sitting in a sauna isn't going to burn more and maybe even fewer.

[badger]

I use the sauna to stretch after my swim. Granted the sauna that's at the aquatic centre isn't terribly hot, so it's kind of like Bikram's. It's a way for me to unwind and warm up. Sometimes I look forward to the sauna more than the workout itself!!

I'm not sure if there's really any weight loss perks for it, but millions of Scandinavians can't be wrong!!

[gnat23]

Just because you're sweating doesn't mean you're working out, or even working out that much harder.

(As someone once told me in an overheated spinning class sans fan -- I swear there was a small lake beneath me)

-- gnat!

[channlluv]

Well, phooey. I knew it was too good to be true. Alas.

Still, it feels good. I like the idea of eliminating heavy metals, too, and whatever other toxins are pushed out of my body with all that sweat.

I'm trying to get in 30 minutes of cardio every day on top of the Core Performance workouts. According to the basic numbers, I should be dropping 3 pounds per week, but I'm not.

I've seen an endocrinologist and we've started the hormone testing. We'll see if it leads anywhere. So far, everything comes out normal.

Roxy