Do vibration plates help with weight loss? Saunas, red light and other gadgets checked

Do vibration plates help with weight loss, and what do they actually do?

Vibration plates do not melt fat on their own, but used for exercise they can add a small amount of effort. In trials with people living with obesity, weight came down when vibration training was part of a programme that also changed what people ate.

A vibration plate is a platform with a motor. It moves up and down, or tilts from side to side, many times per second. Your muscles react with tiny, quick tightenings to keep you steady, which is why your legs can tingle or feel tired afterwards.

That muscle work costs some energy. In a German lab study, twelve young, healthy volunteers stood on a plate at a strong setting. With the plate running, their oxygen use rose by about 4.5 ml per kilo of body weight per minute compared with the same positions on the plate switched off.

By our rough sum, that brings plain standing on a plate close to the energy of a slow walk, but only while the plate runs, and only at a strong setting. Squatting on the plate raised energy use further, and the researchers concluded that the extra cost comes from the muscles working.

What trials in people living with obesity show

The clearest overview is a systematic review that found 18 studies of vibration training in adults living with obesity. Most were small, and most of the people studied were women. A typical programme was three sessions a week of squats and calf raises on a plate, not standing still.

Programmes of about ten weeks or longer led to some weight and fat loss, and leg strength improved about as much as with ordinary strength training. Some of these studies also used a lower-calorie eating plan, so the plate was not doing the job alone.

One Belgian trial followed 79 adults with overweight or obesity for a year. Groups that combined a diet with either fitness training or vibration training were the ones that kept off at least 5 % of their weight. In that trial, the vibration group also lost the most deep belly fat, but the authors called their results preliminary.

The review authors called vibration training “promising” as an add-on, especially for women. They also said that settings were not standardised and that long-term safety was still uncertain. That is a long way from the “lose weight while you stand” promise in advertising.

How to use a vibration plate safely if you still want one

If you want to try a vibration plate, start low and short, hold on to a rail, bend your knees slightly and stop if anything hurts. Talk to your doctor first, because vibration is not suitable for everyone.

The safety picture is less clear than the marketing suggests. In the review mentioned above, the daily vibration dose in 7 of the 18 studies was above the level that an international vibration standard considers unsafe. That standard was written for people exposed to vibration in their jobs, not for exercise, but it shows how strong some settings are.

Side effects in the studies were uncommon, yet they did happen: inflammation of a vein in the lower leg, mild knee pain and back pain after two weeks of training. Falls specialists who reviewed vibration training for older adults added a further warning. They advised using it only after a personal assessment and with guidance from a trained professional.

Who should talk to a doctor first

Ask your doctor or physiotherapist before you step on a vibration plate if any of these apply to you:

• you are pregnant or think you might be
• you have a pacemaker, a joint replacement, metal pins or plates, or any other implant
• you have had a blood clot, or surgery in the last few months
• you have painful knees, hips or back, or osteoarthritis that flares up easily
• you have problems with balance, dizziness or falls
• you have heart disease, epilepsy, or eye problems such as a detached retina

This list is a reason to ask, not a diagnosis. Many people with joint pain can still exercise well; our guide to exercise with bad knees shows options that load the joint gently.

A careful way to start

1. Check the weight limit. Every plate has a maximum user weight. Choose one rated well above your own weight, with a stable base and a handrail.
2. Use the lowest setting. Begin with one or two minutes, stand with slightly bent knees and hold the rail. Keep your knees soft rather than locked straight, so your leg muscles take up the movement.
3. Do simple moves rather than standing still. Slow half squats and calf raises are what most studies used. Keep each set short and rest off the plate between sets.
4. Build up slowly. Add a minute or a set per week only if you feel fine the next day. More time on the plate is not automatically better.
5. Stop if something feels wrong. Pain, headache, dizziness, a racing heart or numbness are signs to step off and talk to your doctor.

What is the best vibration plate for weight loss?

No vibration plate has been shown to be better than another for weight loss, so the honest answer is: the one you use safely, or none at all. We do not recommend brands or models.

If you buy one anyway, look at practical points rather than promises: a weight rating that suits you, a sturdy rail, simple low settings and a fair return policy. Be wary of adverts that show calories burned or kilos lost; those numbers are not backed by trials. The same money buys good walking shoes, which are worth more.

Is a sauna good for weight loss, or is it just water?

A sauna does not make you lose fat. The weight you see on the scale after a session is sweat, and it returns as soon as you drink. Saunas can be relaxing and pleasant, but they are not a weight-loss tool.

A study in Poland weighed 674 inactive students before and after two 10-minute rounds in a dry sauna. The heavier the student, the more weight they lost during the session.

The researchers did not call that a benefit. They warned that people with a higher BMI are at greater risk of dehydration and should take extra care to drink.

That is the key point for a heavier body: you can sweat more, and that brings more risk, not more fat loss. Your body needs that water back, so the scale goes up again within hours.

Do sauna suits and sweat belts help?

A sauna suit is a plastic or rubber suit that traps heat while you exercise. It makes you sweat more, which looks like hard work, but the extra energy use is tiny.

In an American study, twelve active adults did the same interval session twice, once with and once without a sauna suit. With the suit they used about 23 extra kilocalories over the session and the hour after it. The researchers concluded that this may not benefit weight loss.

Slimming belts and wraps work on the same idea and remove water from one area for a few hours. Our page on loose skin after weight loss explains why they do not tighten skin either.

Sauna or steam room: which is better for weight loss?

Neither one helps you lose fat. A dry sauna and a humid steam room both heat your body, raise your heart rate and make you sweat. The difference is comfort, not fat loss.

Choose the one you enjoy, if any, and treat it as relaxation. Keep sessions short, drink water afterwards and get out at once if you feel faint.

Sauna safety: heart, blood pressure and alcohol

For most healthy people a sauna is safe. A Finnish review found that people with high blood pressure or heart disease who were stable and on treatment did not seem to be at special risk. It added a warning: blood pressure medicines can make you dizzy when you stand up after a hot session.

That review was mainly based on people who had used saunas since childhood. If you are new to it, have a heart condition, take blood pressure medicines or are pregnant, talk to your doctor first.

Never combine a sauna with alcohol. In a Korean study of 103 deaths in saunas, about three in four of the people who died had a blood alcohol level of 0.08 % or more, a level at or above the drink-driving limit in most countries.

Get out of the heat and ask for help if you feel faint, confused, sick or have chest pain in a sauna or steam room. Drink water afterwards, and do not use heat to “sweat off” weight before a weigh-in or event.

Does red light therapy help with weight loss or inches?

Red light therapy may shave a few centimetres off the waist in short trials, but there is no good evidence that it helps you lose weight on its own. The research is small, short and mostly combined with exercise or diet.

Red light therapy, also called low-level laser therapy or photobiomodulation, shines red or near-infrared light on the skin. Clinics offer it as “non-surgical body contouring”, and belts and pads are sold for home use.

A recent meta-analysis pooled 11 randomised trials with 569 people living with obesity. Treatments lasted one to four months. In most trials, light was added on top of an exercise programme, a diet, or both, and compared with the same programme without light.

Waist size, weight and BMI fell a little more in the light groups. Yet body fat percentage did not clearly change, no trial followed people for more than four months, and the authors rated the certainty of the evidence as very low to moderate. Only a few trials used a fake light to blind participants.

What about red light belts at home?

Most trials used lasers in a clinic, and one used a strap with LED lights, always with a set dose and alongside a diet or exercise plan. Results from a supervised trial cannot simply be transferred to a belt you buy for home.

A tape measure around one spot is also not the same as body fat: in the meta-analysis, body fat percentage did not clearly change. If you want a smaller waist, the steps on our page about how to lose belly fat are slower but last.

Does lymphatic drainage, a roller or cryotherapy reduce fat or cellulite?

Lymphatic drainage, massage rollers and cold treatments do not help you lose weight. At most they move fluid or change the look of a small area for a short time, and one cold treatment carries a rare risk of the opposite effect.

Lymphatic drainage massage

Manual lymphatic drainage is a gentle massage that pushes fluid towards the lymph nodes. It is a real medical treatment for lymphoedema, a swelling that can follow cancer surgery or damage to the lymph system.

Even there, its added benefit is modest. A Cochrane review of women with lymphoedema after breast cancer found that adding this massage to compression bandaging gave only about 7 percentage points more reduction in arm swelling than bandaging alone.

If a massage helps a swollen arm only a little, it cannot drain away body fat. Fat is stored inside fat cells, not in the lymph fluid. Feeling lighter or less puffy after a session is fluid moving, and it comes back.

Some people living with obesity do have swollen legs that stay swollen overnight, or heavy, painful legs. That deserves a proper check by your doctor, not a spa treatment; our doctor visit checklist helps you prepare.

Rollers, cups and massage devices

Foam rollers, cellulite rollers, suction cups and massage guns can feel good and may ease tight muscles. A review of cellulite treatments found that any smoothing effect of massage seems to be short-lived.

No roller reaches the fat stores your body uses for energy. For the face, our page on face fat looks at jade rollers and similar tools.

Cryotherapy and fat freezing

There are two kinds of “cryo”. Whole-body cryotherapy means standing in a very cold chamber for a few minutes. It is marketed for recovery after sport, not as a weight-loss treatment, and we found no good trials showing that it helps people lose weight.

Fat freezing, or cryolipolysis, is a cosmetic procedure that cools one small bulge, such as the lower belly. It is a treatment for shaping one small area, not a way to lose weight.

It also has a rare but real risk. A review of 28 studies with more than 13,000 patients estimated that about 1 in 455 treated people developed a firm, larger fat bulge in the treated area instead of a smaller one. This is called paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, and the reviewers think it may be under-reported.

Does cellulite go away with weight loss?

Cellulite often improves when you lose weight, but not always, and for some people it looks worse for a while. It depends on how much fat you lose, how your skin and connective tissue respond, and your genes.

Cellulite is the dimpled, “orange peel” look of the skin on thighs, hips and buttocks. It is estimated to affect 80 to 98 % of women after puberty. It is a normal feature of the body, not a sign of poor health.

A study of women in medically supervised weight-loss programmes measured their skin in detail. Most saw their cellulite improve with weight loss, especially those who started with a higher BMI, more severe cellulite and who lost more thigh fat. For others it became worse, mostly when weight loss was small and the skin became looser.

Researchers now think the dimples come mainly from tight bands of connective tissue under the skin. That helps explain why treatments aimed only at fat or skin, such as creams, massage and light, tend to give results that do not last.

What you can do: lose weight at a steady pace, build the muscles in your legs and buttocks with simple strength training, and be kind to yourself. A smoother thigh is not the measure of your health or your success.

Why passive gadgets cannot replace moving your body

Passive gadgets cannot replace movement because the energy they add is small, and most of the weight they remove is water. When your own muscles carry your body, you use far more energy, and your heart, lungs and joints get stronger too.

The table shows rough estimates for a person who weighs 100 kg, using the standard energy values from the Compendium of Physical Activities. The numbers include the energy your body uses at rest. A heavier body uses more, a lighter body less.

Standing on a vibration plate at a strong setting sits somewhere between standing still and a slow walk, and most people use one for minutes, not half an hour. A walk can also be split over the day, done with a friend and repeated tomorrow without any machine.

Try our calories burned calculator to see what your own walks add up to. Remember that food matters more for the energy balance than any single session of exercise.

There is another reason to prefer movement. Global guidelines from the World Health Organization advise adults to do 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus muscle-strengthening on two or more days. They also stress that some activity is better than none, so you can start far below that.

Those benefits come from your muscles working, your heart pumping and your joints moving. No gadget can give you a fitter heart, better blood sugar or an easier climb up the stairs while you stand still.

What to spend your time and money on instead

The best use of your time and money is free: walking, gentle cardio at home and simple strength exercises, together with filling meals. They work at any size and they can start today.

Talk to your doctor first before you start any new plan, especially if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or painful joints. Then build up one small step at a time:

1. Walk a little every day. Start with a distance you can really manage, even five minutes, and add a few minutes each week. Our walking plan for weight loss takes you from there in twelve weeks.
2. Add gentle cardio at home. If walking outside is hard, low impact cardio at home starts on a chair and moves to standing when you are ready.
3. Strengthen your legs and core twice a week. Sit-to-stands, wall push-ups and calf raises do what a vibration plate promises, with your own body as the machine.
4. Use a gym if you like one. A treadmill or bike gives you rails and a steady pace; our gym workout for weight loss explains how to start.
5. Drink water instead of sweating it out. Swapping sugary drinks helps far more than a sauna; see water and weight loss.
6. Keep the pace steady. About half a kilo to one kilo a week is a realistic pace for many people; our page on safe weight loss explains why.

If a new gadget appears in your feed, use the questions on our weight loss myths page to check it. Ask what the study really measured: weight, fat, water or a tape around one spot.

Curious about help for your mind instead, such as hypnosis or acupuncture? Our check of hypnosis for weight loss looks at that evidence too.

How Obesity Foundation helps you lose weight without gadgets

We help people lose weight and get healthier with good food, suitable exercise and walking. Everything we offer is free, and none of it involves machines, belts, creams or supplements.

• Request your free eating plan with filling everyday meals and a shopping list.
• Get the free workout videos in three levels, Start, Build and Strong, beginning gently and partly seated.
• Book a free video meeting (in English) to ask about a gadget you are thinking of buying, or where to begin.
• Join the free Obesity Foundation Club to log your walks and see your progress.

Our advice is general and does not replace your own doctor. Before you spend money on any device, you are always welcome to ask us what the research says about it.