Do you burn calories in a Sauna

are you doing aerobics while in the sauna? maybe take a stationary bike in with you. sex in a sauna, that'd burn a few calories. Sitting on your backside getting a sweat on? Um, no. Nice thought though. On the plus side they're great for your complexion, muscle tension and even your lungs.

130 - 146 degrees?!? That sounds painful as hell!!

It's just the air temperature. Air isn't a great conductor of heat. Now if you were in water with a temp of 130-146 degrees that would be dangerous.

I grew up with a sauna (wood fired stove) and we routinely took them at much higher temperatures than 130-146. You just don't stay in that long, take cooling breaks and for the really brave jump in some cold water or roll in the snow.

When I go to Finland I loose # every time!!! I eat more but use the sauna on a regular basis I can't figure that one out . Maybe I am more relaxed it's a mystery to me. Come back home and I fight to keep my weight down.

Good old exerise here at home and counting those calories.

I wouldn't because I am sitting down. That is NO effort. BONUS!

Well, I have not changed my eating habits, get in the sauna nearly every day or every other day, and my clothes are looser after 2 weeks of this. Humm...

Your heart rate does go up as it is compensating for the heat. My heart rate will go up to about 120 while sitting there. When I get out, it spikes to 130ish. Which the higher the heart rate, the more calories your burn. Now is it productive calorie burn? Probably not.

Not sure if sitting in there that long is good. Be sure to drink lots of water afterwards to compensate for the water loss. My personal trainer tells me to sit in there for 10-15 mins to flush toxins from the body.

To this and others who think that "heart rate increase = increased calories", the answer is "no, not in this case". When heart rate increases due to thermal stress, the heart rate itself increases, but there is no corresponding increase in either cardiac output or oxygen uptake. Therefore, there is no increase in calories burned or metabolism. The same principle holds true for things like hot yoga. The calorie burn during thermal stress is not appreciably higher than doing the activity without the increased temperature.

And, no, it doesn't "flush toxins", either. I'm sure your trainer is well-meaning, but he or she is not quite up to speed on this topic. It's one that is often misunderstood.

It might not help u burn calories but it helps with ur toxins...

Nowt to do with calorie burn, because I don't think it is significant but would it be better to split the 30 mins into three 10 min sessions with a cold dip or shower in-between? I'm told that is one of the traditional ways to use a sauna.

I tried to google this, and found a few hits on research.

It seems like there is fairly solid evidence that you release toxins - or more precisely, trace minerals and chemicals that you don't want to have building up in your body - through sweating. It doesn't matter how you sweat, but sweating is good for us. This means that if you live, like the Nordic people, under conditions where getting soaking wet sweating can kill you during the winter, a sauna is a very good thing indeed. (OK, now it's more of a luxury, as we can all go to the gym, but way back when it was a very good thing for health and hygiene through the winters.)

As for calorie burns, there is a reference going around to a certain Ward Dean, MD, who supposedly did research on this for the US army. He has a website where he has collected a large set of references for anti-aging research. When I google scientific articles and books for his name, I come up not with his own research and I can't find that he has doen anything connected with saunas, but I found this rather interesting book: Selling the Fountain of Youth. It's a very critical analysis of the anti-aging research and proponents, and it names Ward Dean as a participant in what looks like a scam. In this book he is particularly noted for his very inventive views on income taxes.

So, I'd not rely too much on the rumour of some research which may or may not exist. You'll be better off walking for half an hour, if what you want is weight-loss. What the sauna does is help you recover faster from workouts and injuries, as the heat helps increase the circulation in the body. It also helps sweat out trace minerals and chemicals the body doesn't need. And it's a great way to relax and feel clean inside and out.

The way we used the sauna as I grew up was by sitting in there until it was too hot, then having a shower or just throwing some cool water over ourselves, get back in and warm up again - repeating the process of sweating and rinsing. If you have heart-issues, high blood-pressure or bring children or elderly into the sauna, you should be careful about the higher temperatures, but it can still work well on a slightly lower setting.

Enjoy!

http://www.livestrong.com/article/242883-sauna-benefits-calories-burned/

According to Mayo for someone that weighs 160 and sits for 30 min., you can burn up to 300cal. The reason is that it raises your heart rate from the heat.