Hot Baths Can Burn Extra Calories

Soaking in a hot bath can help burn some extra calories, but only if you can get the water hot enough.

The body has to burn energy to keep itself at the proper 98.6 degrees F. The colder the outside temperature, the harder the body has to work to stay warm. In that sense, colder temperatures help you burn more calories.

But when you sit in a warm bath, the water will keep the body at warm enough temperature that the body no longer has to burn calories to maintain the proper temperature.

However, if you can get the water temperature hot enough, your heart rate will increase. This increase will result in some extra calories burned. You won't burn a lot, but you'll still burn some.

Instead of laying on my bed, watching television, I'll soak in a hot bath, and listen to television from within the bathroom. I'll spend about 30 minutes soaking. It's a way to burn some extra calories, and still be able to listen to the news.

You'll actually end up losing more weight from sweating out excess water as well.

Soaking in a hot bath also helps me go to sleep. AND, if you can good night's rest, about eight hours worth, the average person will burn about 500 calories sleeping. That's another way a hot bath can help you lose weight.