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Should you log Sauna?

darrenpage1
darrenpage1 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
After i workout, i always use the sauna. Should i ne logging that somewhere and if yes, where?

Thanks in advance, sorry for my ignorance 🙁

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,987 Member
    I would rather ask you: why do you think you should log it?

    I wouldn't in any case - it's not exercise.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,317 Member
    I have the same question: Why do you want to log it?

    In the big picture, it isn't likely to have a material effect on calorie expenditure, no matter what some sources may claim. Personally, I've been calorie counting for around 9 years (loss then maintenance). Recently I started sauna-ing several times a week. I haven't seen any scale change that I wouldn't expect from my calorie intake and actual exercise.

    If you want to track on MFP which days you did it, you could add it as a custom exercise for 1 calorie, or put it in the exercise notes area.
  • kdsmayberry04
    kdsmayberry04 Posts: 1 Member
    I have a different take. I wish it was easier to log things like sauna or cold plunges because I'd like to use MFP for overall health tracking and not just weight loss. In that context, tracking a variety of variables in one wholistic platform makes a lot of sense.
  • pinh
    pinh Posts: 25 Member
    kdsmayberry04- Journal? or do you need something that summarizes daily entries over time? MFP captures a fair amount of information. I see why they focus the way they do. There is probably some kind of calendar that you could keep that helped with recording items. I sometimes toss things in MFP notes to help with items that are not strictly food or exercise.
  • scottydewwannalosewt
    scottydewwannalosewt Posts: 101 Member
    a sauna will help you get rid of excess water. But like it's already been mentioned it's not exercise and MFP doesn't have a category for it. However, after doing an Internet search I found the info below:
    You could manually enter sauna into MFP but you need to ask yourself for what value? Based on the 2nd internet search I'd suggest 200 calories for a 30 minute session.

    How many calories do you burn in a sauna?

    A 30-minute sauna session can burn around 50–100 calories

    A 30-minute sauna session can burn 150–300 calories, depending on your body type
    A 30-minute sauna session can burn 300–500 calories, depending on your weight, metabolism, and the sauna's temperature

    Here's another factoid:

    A 2019 study revealed that four 10-minute sauna sessions, interspersed with 5-minute cooldowns, led to a loss of 0.65 kg, primarily from water loss. An average of 73-134 calories burned in the sauna for 10 minutes was recorded, totaling a minimum of around 200 calories burned in an infrared sauna over 30 minutes.

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