Saunas, huh?
What you're losing in saunas is
water weight. Sorry, but you can't 'sweat out' fat. Doesn't matter if it's a traditional sauna or an infrared one.
Here's an article I dug up.
Quote:
12/03/03
The Infrared Sauna
Katie Wintters teaches pilates and works out at least three times a day. Needless to say she's in very good shape, but she says working out and eating right haven't been the only keys to her great health.
"I actually lost 20 pounds over a three month period," she explains.
She attributes much of her well being and weight loss to a cedar box, it's an infrared sauna. Unlike normal saunas, it uses infrared rays to heat your body.
"The tissues get hot so it makes the heart starts pumping faster, so you get a work out while you're in there because your heart rate goes up," Katie explains.
She's been using it for more than a year and says she's in better health today than ever before.
'It's eliminated toxins (from the body) I haven't been sick in a year and a half, and the energy is amazing," she says.
People around the country are buying into this latest health craze, but local doctors don't sing all of it's praises.
"I think it makes people feel better but as to whether it moves anything from the body other than water or electrolytes has never been shown to happen," says Dr. Stephen Rydzak of ETMC. He says there are no documented health benefits and worries som people might look at it as an alternative to exercise. He does admit though that it can increase circulation and may very well make you feel better.
Personally, any time I see someone talking about "detoxifying the body" I automatically smell a HUGE scam. Check this article out from Quackwatch.org...
http://www.quackwatch.org/01Quackery...ics/detox.html
Quote:
"Detoxification" with Pills and Fasting
Frances M. Berg, MS
It's an irrational concept, yet an intriguing idea, that modern life so fills us with poisons from polluted air and food additives that we need to be periodically "cleaned out" ("detoxified"). Never mind that natural chemicals in our foods are thousands of times more potent than additives, or that most Americans are healthier, live longer, and can choose from the most healthful food supply ever available.
The elaborate, manipulative hoax of "detoxification" is gaining ground. Many people sincerely believe that their intestines, colon, and blood stream are subject to "clogging" by undigested foods and poisons. Food faddists seem to have a special fascination with bowels, colons, and body wastes.)
The supposed need to detox is promoted through extensive writings, advertisements and door-to-door pitches. This usually involves fasting several times a year for a few days while taking laxatives or diuretics to "clean out the system."
Some entrepreneurs claim that detoxing is a great way to jump-start a diet by losing 5 or 10 pounds before you even begin the diet itself. And if their scheme is not about weight loss, "rejuvenation" is typically recommended afterward. People who are persuaded that these activities will restore vigorous youth can wind up hooked on an herbal regimen that costs several hundred dollars a month.
In the "Inches Away plan," the client eats no solid food for three days, drinks only water with lemon juice and honey added, and takes three kinds of herbal capsules. This is claimed to cleanse the digestive tract of accumulated waste and putrefied bacteria, clean out the major organs and blood, and give mental clarity because it stops the mind's bombardment by chemicals and food additives. After three days of detox, the client takes four kinds of diet pills in combination, up to 30 a day, and visits the diet center for weekly body wraps and daily simulated action on 10 passive exercise tables.
In the Sambu Internal Cleansing Program, "Dr. Dunner of Switzerland" advises detoxing by drinking a special tea with pills that combine elderberries and birch-juniper.
The Herbal Cleansing and Detox Program from the Indiana Botanic Gardens of Hammond, Ind., includes a tea and tablets containing ginger, prickly ash, yellow dock, cascara sagrada, psyllium and uva ursi. "With your body free of harmful toxins, you will feel younger, better, healthier and happier!" Claimed benefits are increased energy, better digestion, normal weight maintenance, clearer complexion, good circulation, mental alertness, balanced function of vital cleansing organs, and stronger defense system. (Cost for a supply of tea and tablets is $29.90.)
The Health Center for Better Living of Naples, Fla., promotes Colon Helper and an amusing theory: "It has been proven by medical authorities that nearly half of all sickness starts in the colon . . . when the colon is kept clean, disease in the body is very rare." After this the dieter might choose their Trim Fast pills, Herbal Food Combination Weight Loss Formula #59, Dieter's Delight Herbal Tea, or Good-Bye Cellulite.
Detoxification Relief is marketed by Home Health of Virginia Beach, Va. It helps you stop harmful effects from "overindulgence," or from tobacco, alcohol and pollution.
Dr. Clayton's Natural Program for Weight Control combines three kinds of pills, two for cleansing and one for weight loss. Blood Cleanser is claimed to "detoxify the blood and tissues," and the Herba-Clenz is for "cleansing and healing the bowel."
The detoxification theory can enable con artists to gain great power over their customers by diagnosing and curing "potentially fatal" (but nonexistent) illnesses. "They have to invent the idea of toxins," says Peter Fodor, president of the Lipoplasty Society of North America, "because that gives them something to pretend they can fix."
It can be terrifying to believe that one's body is being poisoned by toxins from within. But if this were true, the human race would not have survived, says Vincent F. Cordaro, M.D., an FDA medical officer. "A person who retained wastes and toxins would be very ill and could die if not treated. The whole concept is irrational and unscientific."
Speaking of saunas...recently HBO aired a documentary titled "Jockey" about what those athletes are forced to do to 'make weight' and ride in races (max of 115 pounds). If you have "HBO On Demand" I believe it's still available (I highly recommend watching it...it's chilling what these guys go through and how it wrecks their bodies). These guys spend a LOT of time in saunas, getting rid of water weight that comes back the next day - as soon as the races are over and they drink some H20. Here's a portion of the synopsis from the HBO website:
Quote:
JOCKEY follows the lives of three dedicated riders as they cope with the twists and turns of the intense - and often life-threatening - demands of their profession. Punctuated by footage of dramatic moments in recent horse racing history, this startling America Undercover documentary debuts just days before all eyes are on the Kentucky Derby.
JOCKEY takes an intimate, often-disturbing look at the hidden world of thoroughbred racing through the eyes of superstar jockeys Shane Sellers and Randy Romero and aspiring apprentice Chris Rosier.
While a few jockeys do make millions a year, many riders struggle to earn a living, and even the biggest names will do anything to make minimum required weight.
Through the stories of these three courageous jockeys from three generations, JOCKEY reveals some well kept secrets of professional horse racing, showing how impossibly low weight minimums have spawned a culture of forced starvation, sweating and purging among riders. Adding to the stress of the job, jockeys are not generally signed to contracts and have little job security or health coverage.
All three jockeys featured in JOCKEY express a deep passion for and commitment to the sport, despite the hardships. Sellers, once ranked the third-leading rider in the U.S., has been sidelined by a racing accident and is now working to shed 22 pounds to get back in the saddle. For Rosier, who is a struggling apprentice jock, or "bugboy," a successful racing career may offer an exciting escape from an impoverished life. And after years of competition, legendary jockey Romero suddenly faces death as a result of 20 years of bulimia and riding injuries.
While Sellers is preparing a comeback from his knee injury, he is wary of the lifestyle of the jockey community, where weight obsession runs rampant. "People don't know what riders go through," he observes. "It's a secret. It's a kept secret."
Many racetracks even have specially designed "heaving bowls" in the locker rooms. Rosier describes marathon sessions in the sauna, or "hot box," to lose water weight before getting on a scale to qualify for the race, revealing that "yesterday, I sweated six pounds [to make weight]. I know people who have sweated 11 pounds before a race. This happens every day."
"Keeping your body weight at 106 - 108 pounds stripped soaking wet -- takes its toll," comments Romero. His accident at the 1990 Breeders Cup illustrates the potential for tragedy. The racing icon was riding Go for Wand when the filly broke down in front of 50,000 spectators, but this was only one of 23 major accidents he has suffered. During the filming of JOCKEY, his body reaches a breaking point and he is hospitalized for kidney and liver failure, a dire situation complicated by the fact that Romero, like most jockeys, has no health insurance. "If a baseball player gets hurt, he has a contract. If that happens to a rider, you're just done," notes Sellers, who has spearheaded fundraising efforts to help with Romero's rising medical costs.
This unhealthy attempt to lose weight quickly often leaves riders fatigued and weak before a race -- a dangerous situation for diminutive men and women who ride atop 1200-pound horses racing at speeds of more than 40 miles per hour.
The film has a bittersweet ending, as some racetracks move to raise their weight minimums for the first time, due in part to the efforts of Shane Sellers. This will help young jockeys like Rosier, but unfortunately comes too late for Romero, who is still fighting for his life.
Now, I'm not saying that saunas are bad - I've used the one at my gym from time to time - it's relaxing and feels good. But if you're planning on buying one as a weight-loss aid, IMO you're just tossing away your money.
