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Even if you perform all the right exercises at high intensity, there is a chance you may not extract the most out of your workout. This is sometimes due to not channeling the exercise to your body in the most efficient way – often there are additional bits of supportive clothing and gear which can help with this.
To get rid of that obstinate belly fat, some trainers will often recommend combining your workout with waist trainers and/or sweat vests. You can wear these workout aids beneath t-shirts, suits, button-downs, and polos since they’ll make you sweat more and help coerce your body into shapes which are more conducive to weight loss. In addition to helping you shed pounds, they can keep you warm if you are working out in the cold and also offer lumbar support.
But where do you start? Amazon provides a wide selection of waist trainers and sweat vests. You’ll find everything from cheap ab-belts to body-shaping vests to help you get the most out of your exercise.
Are Sweat Vests Any Good?
According to Lance C. Dalleck, Ph.D., sweat vests can help enhance athletic performance. A greater VO2 max and larger plasma volume are two of the benefits you’ll notice as well as acclimatizing your body to withstand harsher training conditions.
However, if you are not a professional athlete, this data may not mean much. That is why Dalleck also looked into how the suits might help you lose weight. Those who exercised in a “sauna suit” lost 2.6 percent of their total weight and 13.8 percent of their body fat, compared to 0.9 percent and 8.3 percent for those who exercised in standard gym gear.
Their VO2 max had also increased, burning fat more quickly. Lastly, they increased their metabolic rate by 11.4 percent, compared to the control group, which lowered their metabolic rate by 2.7%. This makes the sauna suit (or more commonly a sweat vest) a great supplement to any workout regimen.
How to Use a Sweat Vest
Wear It During Exercise
For years, bodybuilders, boxers, and mixed martial arts combatants have used sweat vests to lose weight. The goal is to keep the body’s temperature up during exercise.
Your body employs perspiration as a cooling mechanism to maintain a stable temperature. Your sweat glands begin to create perspiration when your body reaches a specific temperature. As perspiration escapes from your skin, the cooling effect starts.
Training hard with a sweat vest on will lose more water from your body than without, although crucially you are unlikely to burn many more calories. You will gain a short-term weight loss through water evaporation, but this will be regained once you re-hydrate post-exercise.
Dress Appropriately
If you’re wearing heavy garments which promote sweating, your body does not cool and so produces more sweat to compensate – this is an example of positive feedback. In the end, you’ll have very damp clothing and will have lost alot of fluid.
Avoid Overheating
Yes, working out in a sweat vest can help you lose water and may push you psychologically to train harder than you otherwise might have. However, it’s essential to understand that a high proportion of this weight loss is not helping reduce body fat – it is only temporary. When you eat or drink again, your weight will return to its pre-workout level.
Short-term weight reduction via fluid loss is neither good or bad over the long term as long as you rehydrate effectively. However, we still feel that training in a sweat vest can create a mental intensity to push harder. The sweat pouring out makes you feel like you are working harder and hence you do work harder. Funny old game isn’t it?
What Is Sweat?
Sweating cools the skin as part of the body’s thermo-regulation system via evaporation. Sweat glands known as “eccrine” glands produce the sweat and the water vapour is emitted from the skin’s pores. Sweat is made up of 99% water and the remaining 1% is minerals.
The Advantages of Sweating
Sweating is a powerful detoxifier in and of itself, allowing toxins collected by pollution, tainted water and food, and other environmental exposures to be released. Excessive exposure to heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium could cause health issues or even death when inhaled regularly.
How to Burn Calories by Sweating
If you want to get the most out of your exercise, you need to replenish the fluid you are losing. When undertaking weight-loss exercises, your heart rate and internal body temperature will increase. Your brain, muscles, and skin all require a certain quantity of blood, especially when working out. As you work out and sweat, your blood volume falls. As a result, your body will undergo significant amounts of strain. You may even faint if you’re not paying enough attention to the symptoms of dehydration. Thus, replacing the water you’ve lost is the most effective technique to achieving a successful workout. By staying hydrated, you’re able to work out harder for longer. What’s more, with the additional use of a sweat vest, you can get the most out of your weight-loss exercises.
Conclusion
So, do sweat vests work? Well the jury is out in all honesty. Some of the scientific evidence shows that Sauna Suits can increase the acclimatisation of the body to tough training conditions, and we have seen a similar effect with sweat vests. The sweat vest can strengthen and push you mentally to put more into your workout.
However the short-term weight loss via sweating should be ignored on its own. It may be useful for a boxer to lose water to hit a pre-defined weight limit for a fight, but it is in no way a long term weight loss requirement. We would say that it’s worth looking into a sweat vest if you want to feel like you’re ‘getting in the zone’ with your workout. If not, then it’s probably not worth bothering.
Best Sweat Vest
Our clients have trialed many brands of sweat vest over the years in order to increase the amount of water they burn off during a workout. Often it can make sense to buy from the budget end of the market as long as the fit and finish of the vest is comfortable, with no sharp edges etc. We recommend looking for a sweat vest with decent zips and some form of lumbar support if you are likely to be lifting heavy weights as you train. Here are some of our favorite choices on the market at this time.
Cimkiz Sauna Vest with Body Shaper
We really like the Cimkiz Sauna Vest for a low cost option to improve your weight loss at the gym. It’s available in six different sizes, and we recommend going a size up from your normal fit because these vests are imported from China.
Why do we like it? Well firstly we’re fans of the sleeveless vest design, keeping the arms free from restriction and showing off those guns. The Cimkiz incorporates a full-length plastic zip right down the center of the vest which means you don’t have to struggle putting it on and can also add in additional cooling by simply partially unzipping when you need to let in some air.
On top of this, Cimkiz have incorporated a useful dual-strap lumbar support system which wraps around your waist and can be tensioned to exactly how you want it using large velcro pads. We found that this lumbar support can help double as a weightlifting belt at the same time as you are sweating. Really useful.
The only downsides we found with the Cimkiz sweat vest for the money was the smell of the neoprene material out of the box. It had a slight ‘chemical’ smell which was not too pleasant. However, after a few washes this seemed to dissipate. Overall, we can recommend the vest for the low price and the performance.
Kutting Weight Sauna Suit Tank Top
Kutting Weight are a well known brand in the USA, and their Sauna Suit Tank Top is a great addition to your sweat vest arsenal if you’re looking to shed water and get ripped fast.
The Kutting Weight Sauna top uses a compression fitting to really contour against your body, and help enhance the shape. This is a full-on sweat vest with excellent stitching (triple-reinforced) and 1.5mm neoprene. You could take this out in the ocean for some bodyboarding – it’s essentially a wetsuit top!
There is no central front or back zip with this sauna vest which means you get maximum sweating from the minute you start exercising. We found it a little tricky to put on, but luckily the material does stretch a bit which helps with getting your arms through the holes.
The design and build of the Kutting Weight vest is excellent and we have no complaints about the material choice. It works well. In terms of sizing, we would recommend going one size down from your usual if you want a sculptured tight-fit. Overall, this is one of the best sweat vests on the market.
