SAUNA SUITS AND WEIGHT LOSS
of hard exercise, so 2 L of lost cardiac output would be typically
experienced by most athletes exercising hard for an hour (5,7,13).
Wearing gear designed to make the body sweat more can severely
increase this loss of water, minerals, and the ability to use oxygen.
equipment used by this patron has to be cleaned prior to letting
other patrons use it. Even in the locker room, wearing waterproof
attire will cause sweat to pool up and it will fall as they take it off,
again presenting a health hazard.
When a tactical athlete loses a lot of water, it does not make the
tactical athlete lose body fat also. The tactical athlete will only lose
water weight for a short period of time before it is replenished by
eating and drinking after the exercise. For example, fighters who
lose 15 – 30 lb for a weigh-in the day before a fight can regain
most of this weight to get to their true fighting weight on the
day of the fight. Some may argue that replenishing the water and
minerals lost will require more calories to be expended to replace
them, but that is like saying an injury requires more calories
because the body has to repair itself; tactical athletes should not
hurt themselves simply to lose a few pounds of weight.
As a final point, for those who think that wearing a sauna suit will
release toxins and viruses from their body, this simply is not the
case. An infection can use the body’s sweat as a vehicle to move
from one area to another, but sweating it all out will not get rid
of the infection entirely. While not proving to be very effective at
removing toxins, using a sauna suit while sick v