Can the body wrap treatments that luxurious spas offer really help someone lose weight? Yes they can, but they can’t help you with fat loss like slimming pills can. These glorified sweat suits are supposed to make you lose a minimum of 6 inches after a simple one hour session. They often claim to heal various skin problems, to detoxify the body, treat acne, improve circulation, alleviate muscle and joint pain, and tighten the skin, but they offer little more than the discomfort of dehydration since that is all that is happening. This is no different than wearing a sauna suit during your workout, which is only asking for extreme dehydration and coronary trouble. Really, it’s no different, just substitute the suit for temporary mummification with clay and epsom salts smothering your skin. The skin needs to be exposed to air in order for it to evaporate and effectively cool the body down, otherwise your body keeps gushing sweat in a desperate attempt to restore normal body temperatures. So, don’t be surprised if you drink back all of your “lost inches” within a few days, if not within the same day, because that is exactly what will happen.

Here’s how body wraps claim to work. You first apply bandages or wraps that have been dipped in your choice of substance. Many use sea clay, while others use seaweed, herbal mixtures, mineral mixtures, or aloe vera. Once you are wrapped, this is when your pores begin to open and the detoxification process begins. The aforementioned substances are what “absorb” all of the impurities. Next comes the second stage of the process, often times called squeezing. This is when the bandages come into play. At this point, the empty ”interstitial spaces”, which are nothing more than small compartments between the cells, are now mashed together in order to create a tighter, smoother look. Some claim that if you can maintain the compacted shape then your cells will actually adapt to the new shape.  And voila! You are now thin! Right??? It’s not quite so easy unfortunately. One thing that is amusing about some of these products is that they recognize the importance of staying hydrated before, during, and after the body wrap session, which is great, but they also like to remind the buyer that you can have several a day and be fine. So, in other words, as long as you get wrapped several times a week, you will never see your body return to its actual shape. It’s a lot like those memory foam balls. As long as you periodically squeeze it, the ball will never return to its original shape. It’s just too bad that it will often cost you as much as $110 for only 32 treatments. That is the price and the approximate treatment number as given by www.bodywrap.com. As far as how often one decides to wrap, this could mean once a week for some, while many companies like to clarify that it is perfectly safe to even have several wraps a day. Let’s take the middle ground. If one were to have four wraps a week, then you would be paying $660 a year for virtually nothing. It’s an expensive game of pretend when you could go join Gold’s gym and pay about $35-45 a month. It is certainly cheaper to do honest, hard work to lose the weight as opposed to the other option of mummifying yourself for an hour a day covered in fancy mud only to achieve empty, fleeting results. To me, it’s a no brainer.