After the class at gym, while walking to the changing room, was chatting with a gym member.

"Hey, you want to join me for the steam bath to lose some weight?"

Politely declined his offer.

From what I was told. Sad to say, it is a misconception about losing weight by having steam bath or sauna. First thing first, what we want to lose is fat. Weight could be fat, water or even muscle tissue, whereas fat is fat. The loss of weight through excess sweating as experienced in the steam room is not fat but water.

Once you drink water, such weight will be back. More worrying is that if the fluid loss is replaced by a high calorie drink, you may end up by gaining fat as a result of your weight loss attempt.

However, another school of thought - steam bath MAY help in weight loss. Their approach is to detoxify the body. From the scientific point of view, it is true that steam bathing has a stimulating effect on the cardiovascular system. The pulse rate will increase within short period. This increases blood circulation, since the heat causes the blood vessels in the skin to expand, accommodating the increased blood flow.

Also, they believe that weight loss cannot be accomplished unless these toxins are first removed. Furthermore, they believe that sending more blood to the capillaries and converting fats and carbohydrates results in much calories burned during one short steam bath session.

So, who is right?

Use steam bath as one of the methods to achieve your goal to lose body fat, but not the only one. In order to reduce body fat, cardiovascular exercise is a must. So does a good diet plan with a strong discipline to do weight lifting.

If only steam bath is so effective, I guess everyone will flock to have steam bath, twice a day, 7 days a week, to become slimmer.

And we will never have overweight people in the world.