Can sauna suits really help you to burn more calories/fat while exercising? Or is that just an urban legend. I'm thinking about getting one if they really work...

It's an urban legend. You'll sweat more (thus losing water weight, but dehydrating yourself in the process), but won't change fat loss even a little...and they can be dangerous if you get overheated. Not to mention, as soon as you eat or drink, you'll gain it all right back.

Amanda is one million percent correct. You would only be losing water and your body needs the water. You want to lose fat.

Oh darn, that stinks. I just read that you need to burn more calories than you eat in order to lose weight/burn fat. Please tell me that's not true cause burning off about 1,800 calories is a LOT to burn in a single day.

I can only do so much dance dance revolution! lol

Cory - You are in luck - you're forgetting about your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).

See, your body requires a certain number of calories just to be alive...breathing, digesting, running your body. If you stayed in bed all day and never moved, you'd still be burning significant calories a day...

Everyone's BMR is different. You can get a rough idea using many BMR calculators on the web, but keep in mind these are ESTIMATES. Once you have a rough idea, you can adjust up or down depending on whether you are losing weight or not.

So you DO need to burn more calories than you eat to lose weight (1 lb takes 3500 calories of "deficit" to lose), but you're burning a lot more than you think!

Here's an example. Let's say my BMR is 1400 calories...I burn that many calories just sitting. In addition, I burn 400 calories in exercise every day. To lose 1 lb per week, I have to make my "burned" number 500 calories more per day than my "eaten" calories (3500 calories divided by 7 days a week). So I'm burning 1800 a day, and can expect that, by eating 1300 calories a day, I'll lose about a lb per week.

Now, that being said, our bodies aren't machines, and formulas are just guidelines. Some weeks you lose more, some you lose less. Sometimes your body stalls out. Some bodies (like mine!) are DRASTICALLY different from the calculators (they say I can eat 2000 calories a day with my exercise to maintain my loss...YEAH RIGHT! Try 1400-1500). It takes a good amount of experimentation to figure it out, but stick around and we'll help you out!

Lol, indeed. Fortunately, your body uses up lots and lots of calories just keeping itself warm, running your brain, growing your hair and digesting your food. Depending on your height/weight/age, you probably burn between 1200 and 1600 calories a day just existing, even if you never do anything but lie in bed and eat. This is called your Basal Metabolic Rate. All the walking around, cleaning your house, DDR and etc are extra calories burned on top of your BMR.

There are lots of calorie calculators on line that will help you to figure out how many calories it takes your body to run itself each day, and once you know that, you can figure out what kind of calorie deficit you should create through diet and exercise. Also, there is a calorie counters forum here at 3FC if you want to get some more help working everything out.

(But exercise is always a good thing!!! You just shouldn't do it in a sauna suit.)

Oops. Amanda and I posted at the same time.

But the point is the same nonetheless.

Aw, thank you sooooo much Amanda and Baffled. I really do appreciate you sharing all the information with me, and you definitely sound like you know what you're talking about.

I'm so relieved to hear that our bodies actually burn a good number of calories just by existing. I was about to get my game on and play 5 hours of DDR per day, hahaha. Yikes! But yea, I love this site so I think I'll stick around for awhile. It's a good motivator cause I wanna look great for this upcoming summer, oh yea!

But thanks again. Yall are great! *hugs*

I just wanted to add... How fun is DDR! I love it.. My kids and I have a great time doing it - It's a great work out!!!

For sure! DDR is like the all time greatest fun exercise, lol.

It's cool to hear that your kids get up and dance along with you. Sounds like a fun family night.