how many calories for sitting in a sauna?

Hey guys,

I was just curious if anybody knows how many calories are lost per/mins sitting in a sauna?  It's hard to monitor how much sweat is released from the body, but I wanted to know if the sauna was just a room to "cleanse" your body, or is it actually weight loss beneficial? 

im pretty sure sitting in a sauna just makes you sweat from the heat, so all you are losing is water weight.  i dont think youre burning any more calories than if you were sitting anywhere.

I'd like to know too because I can feel my pulse increase after about 10 mins. It's like aerobic sitting.

yes..I will have to agree with amc..sauna just gets rid of your water weight which comes back to you in a couple of days.

 love the sauna at the gym, but I agree with everyone here. You will just loose water weigh

I have a tangent question.

If the sauna just loses water weight then should I do it every week, and weigh myself afterwards to get an accurate measurment of my weight?

I retain a lot of water, and that reflects on the scale which moves about 5 lbs every week.  Would this be a good way to measure my progress?

 

 

I've sat in saunas before and it definetly increases your heart rate so I would imaginge it would burn a few more calories than just sitting at room temprature.  However I doubt if the amount will be that significant and if you sole reason being there is to lose weight your time would be better spent doing some form of exercise.  It is a nice place to sit and relax in the heat for a while.  As for weighing yourself, the best thing to do is try to weight yourself at the same time each tiem you weight yourself and under the same conditions.  I personally weigh myself after I get out of the shower in the morning.  Doing it after the suana seems like a good idea to me as I think it would probably reduce the variance in your weight from water gain.  Just don't be alarmed if you weigh yourself at any other time I see it to be significantly higher.

I agree with fitdan in that it's best to weigh yourself at the same time/conditions each time.  I wouldn't do it after a sauna, though, because it seems it would be wildly inaccurate, depending on even small things like what your hydration level was, the temperature, how long you sit in each time, what time of day, whether or not you exercised before, etc. 

I don't sit in a sauna, but if I weigh myself after I exercise, I usually lose 2-4 lbs each time just from sweating.  But it's so uneven, there's no way I could keep track.  If I weigh myself in the morning first thing, my weight rarely varies more than 0.2 lbs from the previous day.  I do sometimes weigh myself after exercise just for the fun of seeing the lower numbers, even though I know it is not "real". :)  Just take the fluctuations in stride if you know you're doing the right thing and it's a consistent pattern.

In saunas, your internal body is actually speeding up, as if you were exercising. This leaves your external body in peace. Sweating is just your body doing its thang when it's trying to cool off while exercising.

So I know that it's not a TON of calories; and it's surely not safe to stay in there long enough to get a fair amt. while trying to loose weight (I work at a pool, I've had to pull some disoriented girls out before).