Here we go again...
One of the well-intentioned members of my gym has been trying to lose weight.
But she's going about it ALL WRONG!
Every day, she puts on a full sauna suit and a weight vest...
Then proceeds to do an hour or more of steady-state cardio on a plethora of cardio machines.
YIKES!!!!!
I find a problem with her weight loss tactics on so many levels.
She's been working so very hard, diligently plodding away day after day, with the belief that this is the only way to effectively shed fat from her 50-year-old body. She doesn't know any better. I give her my respect for her persistence.
But...
Her way sucks.
Why?
#1 - Sauna suits give no extra benefit toward fat loss.
People believe that these rubberized vinyl suits (which are supposed to mimic the experience of being in a sauna) will cause you to burn extra calories during exercise as well as lose excess weight. This is a load of crap.
Since when does excess sweating signify an increased metabolism or an elevated rate of caloric burn?? It doesn't. Excess sweating will simply rid you of large amounts of body water and electrolytes like sodium and potassium. This is not necessarily dangerous, unless its used for extreme amounts of time.
And how does losing water weight constitute a productive loss of weight? Once you drink water after the exercise session, to rehydrate yourself, that water weight will immediately return! Besides, we don't want to lose water weight... we want to lose FAT weight, right?!
The only effect a sauna suit will have on the body? It will cause the body to acclimate to exercising in the heat (the heat that is being generated by your body in the suit). I know this for a fact because I completed my master's thesis on heat acclimation! After multiple, consecutive days in a heated environment, your body simply adapts so that it won't be at risk for heat stroke, dehydration, or electrolyte imbalances. It gets used to the stimulus! That doesn't really sound like the type of situation where excess calories are being burned...
#2 - Doing long bouts of cardio at a steady-state (whether wearing a sweat suit, a weight vest, or nothing at all!) is NOT an effective way to shed fat.
Long, slow cardio only burns calories during the exercise session. If you go for an hour, good for you, you've burned calories for an hour.
Shorter, more intense bouts of cardio as well as shorter, more intense bouts of strength training will not only burn cals during the workout... It will elevate your metabolism so that you burn extra calories for an extended amount of time afterwards! (sometimes 24 or even 48 hours afterwards!) So, if you kick your own butt for just 20 minutes, well you could possibly have created excess caloric burn for that 20 minutes PLUS an extra 20 hours.
Which is better?
I thought you'd say that.
Listen to me, folks!
Fat loss is not easy... But it could be so much easier if you try what works!!
And sauna suits DO NOT work.
Slow cardio for excessive amounts of time DO NOT work.
Performing both of these together DOES NOT work.
Now, if I can just get this poor woman to understand that...
Wish me luck!
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1 comment:
Sauna suits are funny. I remember my dad having one when I was a kid ... and one of those oscillating belt machines. What was the purpose of THAT? ("If you shake enough ... you'll throw up?")
But there was a time when people appear to have believed that being shaken by a machine somehow improved fitness. And there was a time when people believed that being hot helped you lose weight permanently.
Kim makes some excellent observations in this post: just because people believed something at one time doesn't make it true. Staying current on physiological science developments is important; the extent of knowledge available with regard to fitness is amazing, and the extent to which the available information has changed perceptions on fitness efficiency is, well, extensive.
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