SOME people and fitness enthusiasts blunder into believing massage and sauna baths, rubberized gym clothing and other devices are effective ways to reducing weight or melting fat away. Whatever the belief is however, this involves an understanding of what dehydration is.
Weight loss may be either temporary or reasonably permanent. Water lost through dehydration whether by sweating or prolonged thirst will be quickly reflected in loss of body weight. Water is heavy, that’s why this instant weight loss, however, it is only apparent.
This is because dehydration upsets the body’s water balance and its chemical balance, while a dehydrated individual will restore water in the body as soon as he can by drinking and eating as a result any apparently lost weight will be put right back on.
More likely, sauna and steam bath promote sweating and water loss that looks good on the scale. However, this is dehydration, where in the next few hours the body conserved water, the lost weight will again be regained. Physicians on the other hand have expressed concern that sauna and steam bathing may also be detrimental to health for the reason that heat stress is not well tolerated by most middle-aged people.
The danger of heat exhaustion is increased if the individual gets a steam bath after exercise, when the body is trying to dissipate heat and lower its temperature. The same rationale applies to rubberized or other types of non-porous sweat suits, because it encloses the body in a hot environment that causes sweating during exercise and as a result the same sort of dehydration and temporary weight loss as in a steam bath.
