6 sauna suit myths knocked out – number 3
Sauna suits don’t cause you to burn more fat
When you get hot – you’ll prefer to use carbohydrate as a fuel. Fat oxidation is likely to decrease because of this; plus you’ll be exercising at a lower intensity. So no, when you wear a sauna suit you won’t burn any more fat than without it- at best.
At worst you’ll burn less fat!
We’ve known this for at least 15 years.
The data above was collected by exercise physiologists and published in 1994. They asked 13 cyclists to exercise for 40 min. Once in an environment that was controlled at 20 C and once in 40 C. Then they assessed how quickly muscle glycogen (carbohydrate) was used during exercise. When the cyclists muscles were hotter in the 40 C trial, they used more carbohydrate as a fuel source and reduced the amount of fat they used.
So when you wear a sauna suit and get hot because of it, you’ll not be ‘burning’ more fat.