Researchers: having a hot bath may burn as many calories as exercise

A Researchers at Loughborough University claims: having a hot bath might have similar health benefits to exercising.

Its a "Passive heating", they claimed, that might have a positive effect on blood sugar control (which is a good indicator of your overall metabolic fitness) and the number of calories that the body burns.

Dr Steve Faulkner conducted a study by having 14 men who took part in two tests: the first was to go on an hour’s cycle. The second was to kick back in an hour-long 40’C bath, and both tests were designed to raise the core body temperature by one degree, which allowed the team to study how many calories were being burned in each session.

Although the cycling burnt more calories (obviously), the researchers found that a hot bath used up as many calories (around 130 calories) as a 30-minute walk.

Dr Faulkener writes for The Conversation: "The overall blood sugar response to both conditions was similar, but peak blood sugar after eating was about 10% lower when participants took a hot bath compared with when they exercised".

He went on to say that passive heating might also be handy in reducing chronic inflammation in conditions like type 2 diabetes and this isn’t the first study to suggest that passive heating might have very definite health benefits.

A Finnish paper in 2015, suggested that frequent saunas could reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in men – which was later further supported by the University of Oregan which published a study showing that regular hot baths can lower blood pressure.

‘A 30-minute walk burns hardly anything, so in terms of results just having a hot bath every day is nowhere near enough to help with weight loss and it definitely doesn’t burn as much as a run!’ Virgin Active PT Rob Leiby tells Metro.co.uk.

"Weight loss is all about a calorie deficit. There will be some benefits such as reducing inflammation and decreasing blood sugar slightly but again it all comes back to the fact that the best method is always, always, always proper training mixed with a good diet and enough sleep – all these other ways are just crap compared to that get those three things right and everything else will look after itself."

TL;DR baths are nice and relaxing and might have some physical benefits but only when you realistically pair them with actual cardio.