There are a lot of gimmicks when it comes to losing weight [1] and losing it quickly. One of these gimmicks is sitting in the steam room or sauna. Although your muscles will become more relaxed and your skin may get clearer, if you're looking to drop pounds sitting in the sauna, you're going to be disappointed. There's no express lane to losing weight. It requires hard work, consistency, the right training program, and proper nutrition.

Don't let the beads of sweat rolling down your body and your increased heart rate fool you. The extreme temperatures of saunas and steam rooms cause you to sweat and, as a result, lose fluids. The average person will lose one pint of sweat [2] due to dehydration from an average sitting in a sauna, but that shouldn't excite you because it's only water weight [3]. As soon as you rehydrate — it's recommended to drink two to four glasses of water — and eat, the weight you "lost" will come right back.

Instead of wasting your time sweating in the sauna, we recommended doing a combination of: lifting heavy weights [4], doing HIIT workouts [5] and low-intensity sustained state cardio [6], and of course eating right [7]. By doing this, you can lose up to two pounds in a week [8], and keep it off for good.