Have you seen those commercials on television that promise to give you a flatter tummy courtesy of a device called a sauna belt? The idea behind it is that it burns away the unwanted fat around your midsection by sweating it off. The belt is wrapped around the midsection and generates heat. The heat effect is like that found in a hot sauna, but it concentrates on your midsection superheating your cellulite deposits and causing you to sweat it out.
Are they kidding?
Well, like most quick fix methods, the sauna belt doesn’t come highly recommended. A little surfing on the Internet earned me a few details from different consumers. On the whole, I didn’t find many who were happy to have used the product and more than a few that reported burns to their skin and midsection from having used the ‘sauna belt.’
Unfortunately, too many gimmicks are just that – gimmicks. They sounds somewhat reasonable, because when you sweat you relieve excess water retention and we sweat when we are working out. Items like these sauna belts seem realistic because when you workout – especially when you are isolating muscle groups – you generate heat in those areas. So it’s not beyond the realm of speculation that targeting heat at a specific are might increase the fat burning.
But you have to remember that your body’s internal mechanisms for burning fat are related to your metabolism, muscle maintenance and cardiovascular strength built up through exercise. Muscles burn a lot more energy and calories than anything else. When you participate in regular exercise and build up your muscles (remember your heart and your lungs are also muscles) they will burn more calories during their performance.
Your heightened metabolism will burn more calories efficiently and you will be generating more heat. In fact, it’s not uncommon at all when you are first getting into a workout program and working out regularly to be hotter at night when you sleep – this is your heightened metabolism burning fat and releasing excess heat.
This is the type of heat that will help you trim your inches. So consider regular exercise (including cardio workouts) instead of a sauna belt to help you achieve your goals far more realistically and actively.
What do you think of sauna belts and other gadgets that promise to trim inches?
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