Can You Wear a Sauna Suit in The Sauna?

What Is a Sauna Suit?

A sauna suit is designed to trap heat close to your body, increasing sweating during exercise.

While some believe it enhances detoxification and calorie burn, its primary function is short-term water weight loss.

Although these suits can be useful for athletes under controlled conditions, using them in a sauna is not safe and poses serious health risks.

Why You Shouldn’t Wear a Sauna Suit in a Sauna

Extreme Overheating

A sauna already exposes your body to high temperatures. Adding a sauna suit traps even more heat, making it difficult for your body to cool down.

This can quickly lead to overheating, putting excessive strain on your cardiovascular system.

Research shows that exercising in a sauna suit significantly increases core temperature, heart rate, and sweat loss, even in normal conditions.

In hot environments, the strain becomes even greater, which may accelerate heat adaptation but also raises serious health risks.

The study found that participants wearing a sauna suit in high temperatures experienced greater physiological and perceptual stress, highlighting the dangers of excessive heat retention.

“Sauna sweat helps increase your sweat production, which can aid in temporary water weight loss and make your body work a bit harder during exercise, and for some, that added challenge feels like a way to push their fitness routine to the next level,” says Dr. Shivani Amin, a functional medicine physician.

However, when combined with a sauna, the excessive heat retention can become dangerous.

Additionally, individuals with diabetes have a reduced thermal capacity, making it even riskier for them to tolerate excessive heat exposure, warns Dr. Lance C. Dalleck, a professor of Exercise and Sport Science at Western Colorado University.

High Risk of Dehydration

Sweating is your body’s natural way of cooling down. However, when a sauna suit prevents sweat from evaporating, you lose fluids rapidly without efficient cooling.

This significantly increases the risk of dehydration, which can cause dizziness, fatigue, or even fainting.

Athletes often use sauna suits for rapid water weight loss, but the process can be extreme.

Justin Jaynes, a professional fighter, once had to cut three pounds overnight. He wore a sauna suit and walked over three miles to sweat it out.

Even after that, he had to sit in a portable sauna for another 15 minutes to shed the last bit of weight.

This kind of rapid dehydration is dangerous and puts immense stress on the body.

A study found that the sauna suit group had an average 2.6% reduction in body weight and a 13.8% decrease in body fat, while the exercise-only group lost just 0.9% body weight and 8.3% body fat.

But much of this weight loss is just water, meaning dehydration happens faster, especially in extreme heat.

Losing too much fluid without replenishing it can strain your body and lead to severe complications, making sauna suits a dangerous choice in already hot environments.

Dangerous Heart Strain

A sauna naturally raises your heart rate, but wearing a sauna suit amplifies this effect.

The extra heat forces your heart to work much harder to regulate your body temperature.

This can be dangerous, especially for people with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or other underlying health issues.

“Sauna suits are designed to elevate your body temperature by trapping heat, which leads to increased sweating, and this process can assist in weight loss, detoxification, and improved cardiovascular health,” explains Dr. Gowri Reddy Rocco, a double board-certified physician in Family Medicine and Regenerative, Anti-Aging, and Functional Medicine.

But when used in a sauna, the additional heat stress can place an extreme burden on the heart, significantly increasing the risk of cardiovascular complications.

Limited Health Benefits

Some believe that wearing a sauna suit in a sauna increases detoxification. However, while sweating does help remove some toxins, the main function of your liver and kidneys is to filter out harmful substances.

Trapping heat with a sauna suit does not improve this process—it only increases your risk of heat exhaustion.

Even though a study shows that sauna suits can enhance cardiovascular fitness in controlled exercise settings, this does not mean they provide additional detox benefits.

Matt Frevola, a professional fighter, says, "I am always jumping rope with them on, shadow boxing, and then I’ll move to the Air Bike, and it’s a great tool for those looking to make the most out of a little amount of time.

The idea that more sweat equals better detoxification is misleading—your body naturally eliminates toxins through the liver and kidneys, not excessive sweating.

Increased Risk of Heat Exhaustion and Stroke

When your body overheats too much, you may experience heat exhaustion, which includes symptoms like nausea, dizziness, headaches, and confusion.

In severe cases, this can escalate to heatstroke, a life-threatening condition requiring immediate medical attention.

Wearing a sauna suit in a sauna puts you at a much higher risk for these dangerous conditions.

Sauna Suits and Different Types of Saunas

Dry Sauna: A sauna suit prevents your body from regulating temperature, making overheating almost inevitable.
Infrared Sauna: These saunas heat the body directly, and wearing a sauna suit interferes with the intended benefits.
Steam Sauna: The trapped moisture inside a sauna suit can make the experience unbearable and increase the risk of overheating even faster.

Safe Alternatives to a Sauna Suit in the Sauna

Wear breathable clothing to allow your body to sweat naturally without trapping heat.
Stay hydrated before, during, and after a sauna session.
Limit your time to avoid overheating and excessive dehydration.
Listen to your body and leave the sauna if you feel lightheaded or unwell.

Conclusion

Wearing a sauna suit in a sauna is unsafe and unnecessary. The extreme heat buildup can lead to serious health risks, including dehydration, heart strain, and heat-related illnesses.

If you want to maximize your sauna experience, stick to safe practices and allow your body to regulate its temperature naturally.