How Many Calories Burned in Sauna?

Can the sauna burn calories? Check out this article about how many calories burned in sauna.

Can the Sauna Make You Lose Weight?

If you’ve ever been in a sauna, then you’d know that it’s quite hot and makes you sweat a lot. It was the main way for people to clean themselves for centuries.

This kind of heat exposure or hyperthermic conditioning as it’s called has many health benefits: improved cardiovascular health and lower heart rate[i], better blood circulation and blood flow to skeletal muscle[ii]. It also releases growth hormone that reduces protein breakdown and increases fat burning[iii][iv].

Their pulse rate will jump by 30% or more, nearly doubling the amount of blood pumped by the heart. Most of that extra blood gets directed to the skin, which rises over 100°F when in temperatures above 180°F.[v]

The sauna could make you lose some weight by making you excrete water and raising body temperature, which increases total daily energy expenditure. It does increase your heart rate and it gives a small cardiovascular workout but it won’t be significantly greater than regular walking.

Unfortunately, there are reports of people with bulimia combining the sauna with laxatives, and diuretics, which made them experience serious dehydration[vi]. That can be dangerous and cause body dysmorphia. This practice is also very common in sports with weight classes like wrestling, MMA or weightlifting.

Calories Burned in Sauna

The average temperature for the human body is around 36-37°C (98°F)[vii]. To stay within the that range of 36-37°C, it has to expend energy. Thermoregulatory responses will either make you shiver when you’re too cold to heat you up or make you sweat when you’re too hot to cool you down.

Hyperthermia kicks in once body temperature rises above what’s normal. In general, it starts at higher than 37.5°C (99.5°F)[viii]. From a clinical perspective, fevers are considered significant after they reach 38°C (100.5°F). A fever is supposed to fight infections by burning them out and lowering inflammation.

For every 0.5°C (1°F) increase in body temperature, basal metabolic rate rises by about 7%[ix]. So, if you’re in a sauna your metabolic rate could rise about 10-20%, depending on how hot it is and how much your body temperature will rise. If you sit in the sauna for 15-30 minutes at 100°C (212°F), then you could see an increase of up to 25% but I don’t think it’ll rise above 30%.

How many calories you end up burning in a sauna depends on your basal metabolic rate or how many calories your body burns at rest. This is determined primarily by your bodyweight and age. Because at the end of the day you’re still just sitting in the sauna and your metabolism speeds up just because of expending more energy on trying to cool itself down.

A person who weighs around 130-150 lbs will burn about 50-60 calories while sitting for 30 minutes. Someone weighing between 170-200 lbs burns 60-70 calories for that same time because they’re heavier. Doing that in the sauna for 30 minutes would increase your metabolism by 10-20% and you’d burn about 10 or 20 more calories for the same amount of sitting. At the most I could maybe see you burning 50 or 100 calories if your heart is beating really hard but not more than that.

Sauna Water Weight Loss

The biggest weight loss effect people see when using the sauna comes from losing water weight through sweat as well as some glycogen. You just excrete the excess bloat and lower inflammation that makes you retain water.

According to Harvard Medical School, the average person will sweat out about a pint of liquid during a short sauna session. That’s about a half kilograms or 1 pound. You could expect that number to be higher in people who are already overweight or carry a lot of water weight.

Hydration status also determines how much sweat you’ll produce in the sauna. If you’re dehydrated you’ll by default sweat less because there’s not that much water in the body to begin with. Going into the sauna properly hydrated would make you also sweat more profusely.

Things that can make you sweat more are drinking water, getting some electrolytes like salt and magnesium beforehand, niacin, and beta-alanin. Sweatting can make you excrete more electrolytes, which could cause muscle cramps and feinting.

Benefits of Sauna Bodybuilding

Although saunas don’t burn that many calories, they can still improve your body composition through other means. You can change the partitioning of what kind of weight you’re going to end up losing because ideally you want to just lose the fat and maintain as much muscle as possible.

Hyperthermia releases heat shock proteins, which start repairing broken molecules and misfolded proteins[x]. They reduce inflammation and mediate adaptation to the heat. Being adapted to higher temperatures reduces the amount of protein degradation you experience during exercise and decreases overall muscle catabolism. This can result in an overall net positive balance in muscle maintenance, which is incredibly useful for maintaining a higher metabolic rate, especially when eating fewer calories.

Saunas improve insulin sensitivity by increasing the expression of a glucose transporter called GLUT4 that helps to clear the blood stream from sugar and direct it into muscles. Just 30-minutes of hyperthermic conditioning 3-times a week for twelve weeks resulted in a 31% reduction in insulin and blood sugar levels[xi]. This improves nutrient partitioning and enables the food you eat to be stored preferably in muscle instead of fat. Of course, you can’t eat unlimited amount of calories but this small shift in nutrient partitioning can have a positive effect on overall body composition.

Heat stress also releases massive amounts of growth hormone, which will inhibit protein breakdown[xii][xiii]. Growth hormone stays elevated for several hours after the sauna and it has incredible anti-catabolic effects.

Sauna and Cardiovascular Fitness

Generally, the fitter you are the easier it is for you to lose weight as well because your metabolism is faster and you’re able to do more stuff. You’ll be able to exercise harder, longer, and recover faster.

30-minute sauna sessions after working out 2 times per week for 3 weeks have been shown to increase the participants’ run until exhaustion by 32% compared to baseline[xiv]. It can also enhance plasma volume by 7.1% and red blood cell count by 3.5%. This not only improves endurance but can also help with muscle growth and resistance training.

Saunas improve blood circulation and heart functioning, which promotes blood flow to skeletal muscle (muscle perfusion), which can reduce the rate of glycogen depletion[xv] and increase efficiency of oxygen transport to muscles[xvi]. Hyperthermic conditioning has been shown to reduce muscle glycogen use by 40-50%[xvii]. It also lowers lactate accumulation during exercise[xviii].

Taking a sauna has been shown to improve cardiovascular functioning and lower risk of heart disease. In a study done in Finalnd, people who used the sauna 2-3 times a week had 22% less chance of dying to a sudden cardiac event than those who used it only once a week[xix]. Those who went to the sauna 4-7 times a week were 63% less likely to experience cardiac death and 50% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease compared to those who used it once a week.

I personally like to take a sauna almost every day because I think it’s one of the best non-exercise things for your health. It’s not a significant weight loss tool but it does improve your overall fitness and body composition. You can’t out-sauna a bad diet or overeating but it could indeed make you lose some water weight or reduce inflammation.

If you want to know how to take the sauna in the right dose including many other similar strengthening activities, then check out my new book Stronger by Stress. It teaches how to leverage the benefitical aspect of stress to become healthier and more resilient.

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References

[i] Hannuksela, M. L. & Ellahham, S. Benefits and risks of sauna bathing. The American journal of medicine 110, 118-126 (2001).

[ii] Ricardo J. S. Costa, M. J. C., Jonathan P. Moore & Neil P. Walsh. Heat acclimation responses of an ultra-endurance running group preparing for hot desert-based competition. European Journal of Sport Science, 1-11 (2011).

[iii] Velloso, C. P. (2008) Regulation of muscle mass by growth hormone and IGF-I. British journal of pharmacology 154, 557-568, doi:10.1038/bjp.2008.153

[iv] Leppaluoto, J. et al. (1986) Endocrine effects of repeated sauna bathing. Acta physiologica Scandinavica 128, 467-470, doi:10.1111/j.1748-1716.1986.tb08000.x

[v] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/saunas-and-your-health

[vi] Mitchell JE, et al. (1991) Sauna abuse as a clinical feature of bulimia nervosa. Psychosomatics. 1991 Fall;32(4):417-9.

[vii] Sund-Levander, M., Forsberg, C., & Wahren, L. K. (2002). Normal oral, rectal, tympanic and axillary body temperature in adult men and women: a systematic literature review. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 16(2), 122–128. doi:10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00069.x

[viii] Axelrod YK, Diringer MN. (2006) Temperature management in acute neurologic disorders. Crit Care Clin 2006;22:767-85; abstract x.

[ix] https://www.livestrong.com/article/513613-ways-to-tell-youre-running-a-fever/

[x] Naito, H. et al. (2000) Heat stress attenuates skeletal muscle atrophy in hindlimb-unweighted rats. J Appl Physiol 88, 359-363

[xi] Kokura, S. et al. Whole body hyperthermia improves obesity-induced insulin resistance in diabetic mice. International journal of hyperthermia : the of icial journal of European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology, North American Hyperthermia Group 23, 259-265, doi:10.1080/02656730601176824 (2007)

[xii] Velloso, C. P. Regulation of muscle mass by growth hormone and IGF-I. British journal of pharmacology 154, 557-568, doi:10.1038/bjp.2008.153 (2008)

[xiii] Leppaluoto, J. et al. Endocrine effects of repeated sauna bathing. Acta physiologica Scandinavica 128, 467-470, doi:10.1111/j.1748-1716.1986.tb08000.x (1986).

[xiv] Scoon, G. S., Hopkins, W. G., Mayhew, S. & Cotter, J. D. Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners. Journal of science and medicine in sport / Sports Medicine Australia 10, 259-262, doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2006.06.009 (2007).

[xv] King, D. S., Costill, D. L., Fink, W. J., Hargreaves, M. & Fielding, R. A. Muscle metabolism during exercise in the heat in unacclimatized and acclimatized humans. J Appl Physiol 59, 1350-1354 (1985).

[xvi] Scoon, G. S., Hopkins, W. G., Mayhew, S. & Cotter, J. D. Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners. Journal of science and medicine in sport / Sports Medicine Australia 10, 259-262, doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2006.06.009 (2007).

[xvii] King, D. S., Costill, D. L., Fink, W. J., Hargreaves, M. & Fielding, R. A. Muscle metabolism during exercise in the heat in unacclimatized and acclimatized humans. J Appl Physiol 59, 1350-1354 (1985).

[xviii] Michael N. Sawka, C. B. W., Kent B. Pandolf. Thermoregulatory Responses to Acute Exercise-Heat Stress and Heat Acclimation. Handbook of Physiology, Environmental Physiology (2011).

[xix] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2130724