Water retention and sauna?

yirara

No, I'm not trying to promote something unhealthy. I was just wondering if you can counter water retention by sitting in a sauna and drinking masses of water afterwards. Where I live it's currently unbelievably hot. 15 minutes outside and a short car ride twice resulted in a loss of 400 grams on the scale. Of course I filled it up again afterwards. I just wonder if this water ends up as rententioned water again (for example during menstruation) or not.

h7463

Hi there!

Yes, in a way, it does help against water retention. Heavy sweating washes out salt and toxins. As you said, you still need to stay hydrated, or your kidneys will have a serious problem. Watch your minerals, depending on the kind of water that you drink! You need to make up for what you sweat out.
I think, the best part, though, is the clean and soft skin. However, you shouldn't overdo your sessions, just for the sake of losing water weight. For me, it's about 15-20 min tops, and I get light-headed. As my personal water level gets lower, so does my blood pressure, just like it works after taking water pills for high blood pressure.
In my experience, regarding the monthly bloat, the frequent sauna use didn't make it go away, but it made it much more bearable.

I moved to the US from Europe years ago, and I tried the saunas in our local gyms...won't go back, though...there is no sauna etiquette to speak of....you just don't go in there, wearing your workout clothes and stinky sneakers.... No, I'm not making that up....lol

Drink your water and enjoy!

yirara

You're right with minerals. Good one! Any idea on how to fill them up? The tap water is useless here, coming from a desalination plant and the bottled water is somewhat low on minerals as well.

I certainly do take care with the weather (around 45C/113F in shadow), though I think I kind of got used to it and don't get light-headed easily. A few weeks back I stood outside in similar temperatures for almost an hour, queuing for a health check as the office reception staff didn't manage to convert the reception area to a waiting room and failed to hand out numbers o.O Yes, my heart was somewhat faster than usual, and I was already dehydrated from fasting for the blood test but otherwise I was fine. The thing to take care here is that the air usually is so dry that you don't notice you're sweating like crazy.

Clothes in saunas? Seriously? I must admit that's the first time I heard about that! People being ashamed of being naked?

h7463

i know what you mean with the tap water. I've lived in the Middle East for a while, and the tap water wasn't even safe to drink. We used bottled water by the truck loads...lol
The best thing to do, would probably be a blood test first, to find out which minerals you would actually have to supplement, and then determine together with your doctor how to do it. I know from experience in my family, that some people can't 'take a pill' if there's a sensitivity or other health issues.
If you are logging your food in MFP, there is a summary list, showing how much of the vitamins and minerals you are already getting with your nutrition. I usually play around with the food log to find out which fruit, vegetable, or dairy product gives me whatever I've been missing, and I will eat accordingly. I also take a multi vitamin every day, just to cover my bases.

Yeah...they are really shy....and usually uneducated about the sauna routine.... I just wonder...and walk away....lol