Maintaining your weight within a healthy range is very important for your general quality of life. In fact, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, your waist circumference is an important factor when it comes to assessing the overall risk of health complications and premature death. This 10-year study shows that maintaining a healthy risk can help you live a healthier, longer life.
Infrared sauna therapy helps you lose weight by burning calories and detoxifying the body while you relax in comfort.
Infrared heat technology and weight loss.
Recent clinical studies show that infrared heat technology is highly effective when it comes to aiding weight loss. A 2009 study shows that regular infrared sauna use helps reduce waist circumference and lowers weight in just a 3-month period.
One of the common themes among subjects was that infrared sauna use is similar to moderate physical exercise but more relaxing. This study shows that far infrared sauna therapy is an effective lifestyle advantage especially for people who cannot participate in physical exercise due to various medical conditions such as cardiovascular conditions, respiratory problems, and osteoarthritis.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that shows that infrared sauna therapy sessions can burn up to 600 calories. Core temperatures increase during sauna weight loss sessions and the body is tasked with working to cool itself. This causes a healthy sweat which helps detoxify the body while helping you burn calories and lose weight.
Infrared sauna use increases heart rate, metabolic rate, and cardiac output, burning more calories and leading to weight loss. Furthermore, blood flow increases from about 6 quarts to 13 quarts per minute. Studies also show that regular infrared sauna use provides most of the same health benefits as regular physical exercise. Other benefits of infrared sauna therapy include cardiovascular conditioning, just like passive cardio exercise.
How does an infrared sauna help you lose weight?
Infrared sauna therapy has been shown to help in weight loss by increasing your core temperature to gradually induce sweating. This results in an increase in heart rate and blood flow, which, just like moderate physical exercise, has been proven to aid in weight loss.
Infrared saunas also aid in weight loss by easing pains and aches associated with most forms of weight training. This helps you get back to your workout routine the next day.
It is essential to keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that go into weight loss, such as eating habits, current weight, and exercise routine.
Just as there is no one diet for everyone, there’s no specific number of calories or pounds you can lose using infrared sauna therapy. However, studies show that an infrared sauna session can burn up to 600 calories, similar to jogging on a treadmill for 1 hour.
How should you use an infrared sauna for weight loss?
You simply sit or lie back and enjoy total comfort. However, there are numerous more ways to boost your sessions and subsequent weight loss. For instance, you can perform hot yoga while in the sauna.
In addition to improving weight loss, hot yoga offers a wide range of other benefits like better sleep and flexibility. People who find hot yoga too strenuous can consider adding stretching to their sauna sessions. Mild stretching is a relaxing low-impact workout that improves your flexibility and helps raise the core temperature even more. Such exercises effectively aid in weight loss while in your infrared sauna and even for a while after the session.
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Is there any difference between an infrared sauna and steam sauna for weight loss?
Traditional saunas use dry or wet heat to raise the temperature of the air around you, inducing sweating. Although this can also help users lose weight, studies show that the weight loss induced by steam saunas is mainly a result of heavy sweating (loss of water).
On the other hand, infrared saunas heat the body from the inside out, allowing you to enjoy longer sessions. These saunas also increase your heart rate resulting in more calories burnt in a significantly shorter period. Infrared saunas produce far-infrared heat wavelengths of about 9.4 microns, the level at which the body absorbs infrared heat energy.
Moreover, water molecules resonate or vibrate at this frequency resulting in the release of most cellular toxins. Optimal micron output allows for deep penetration of infrared heat, which has been shown to improve weight loss outcomes.
Improving your body’s core temperature
Improving your body’s core temperature has numerous health benefits, the biggest benefit being weight loss. In fact, nowadays many health spas and gyms include infrared saunas as part of their facilities mainly because of their proven weight loss benefit.
Binghamton University conducted a 2-phase infrared sauna weight loss study that revealed that increasing the body’s core temperature results in a reduction in body fat. The study concluded that using an infrared sauna 3 times per week for about 30 minutes per session helps reduce an average of 4% body fat over a period of 4 months. This means a 175-pound man would shed about 7 pounds.
It is important to know that participants who were involved in the study experienced infrared sauna weight loss without changing their diet or exercise patterns during the study period. Control groups who did not use infrared sauna did not show any reduction in weight.
These findings show the significant improvement that infrared sauna therapy provides for your weight loss goals. This infrared sauna weight loss study opens the door for more research and goes a long way to demonstrate what we have always suspected: infrared saunas are good for your overall health.
The bottom line
Although weight loss usually requires a change in lifestyle, it doesn’t mean there’s a specific number you should aim for to be healthy. The Obesity Action Coalition reports that a weight loss of about 5-10% benefits your overall health. Other infrared sauna weight loss benefits include improving cholesterol levels, preventing diabetes, alleviating hypertension, reducing stress, and combating inflammation of the body and sleep apnea.