Selena Gomez Likes Being A Human Sweat Burrito: Her Bizarre Health And Beauty Secret

Selena Gomez likes to sweat, but the singer isn’t the biggest fan of working out. Luckily, she’s discovered a different way to get drenched that allows her to remain completely stationary.

Gomez recently opened up about what she does to stay healthy, and she confessed that she’s a horrible self-motivator when it comes to exercise — after running for just five minutes, she feels like she’s done enough. However, as Just Jared reports, she doesn’t mind doing something “gross” to make her body feel like it’s gone through a grueling workout. According to Selena Gomez, she gets really hot and stews in her own sweat to get her heart rate up.

Selena talked about her strange beauty secret during an interview with ELLE.

“I have a sweat bed, which looks like a burrito that I wrap myself up in, and I sweat for about 45 minutes,” Gomez revealed.

Some dieters like to make themselves sweat because it can make the numbers on the scale temporarily go down. However, Selena Gomez doesn’t get all hot and sticky because she’s trying to lose water weight that she’ll just gain back.

“I started going to a place called Shape House, and you lay in these beds in a sweatsuit, and they wrap you up and you sweat for 45 minutes and it releases all the toxins of your body, and you kind of feel…kind of the equivalent of a sauna, but it gets your heart rate up, and it gets everything flowing in your body,” Selena said.

After marinating in her body’s salty juices and crawling out of her steamy burrito, Selena Gomez does not rinse off right away. According to the former Wizards of Waverly Place star, the sweat has to sit on her skin for a little while longer if she wants to get the full benefit of the health and beauty treatment.

“You feel so good. I know it sounds gross, but you just sit in your sweat for an hour and don’t immediately shower because there’s natural collagen in your toxins that it actually makes your skin feel softer before you wash it all off.”

Selena Gomez swears that this bizarre beauty treatment has done wonders for her skin and body, but is she really releasing “all the toxins” in her body, and can sweat really make your skin look better?

Unfortunately for those who are hoping to sweat their way to looking like Selena Gomez, her sweat bed might not be as miraculous as she paints it out to be. Body For Life For Women author Pamela Peeke, MD, told Health that “there’s no proven evidence that it [the sweat bed] actually does anything,” and it’s definitely not getting rid of all the toxins in Selena’s body — Peeke says that sweat only contains a very small amount of toxins. The body flushes most of the bad stuff out in urine and feces, which are body products that Selena definitely doesn’t want to be rolled up in a hot burrito bed with.

Sweating too much can actually be a bad thing. Dr. Dee Anna Glaser, a professor of dermatology at St. Louis University, told the Los Angeles Times that it can cause dehydration and put stress on the kidneys. The kidneys play a role in detoxifying the blood, so toxin-hating fans of sweat beds like Selena actually risk being counter-productive by making it more difficult for the organs to do their job.

However, Selena Gomez may not be imagining things when she sees a temporary improvement in her skin after a sweat session.

“In order to sweat, your circulation has to be going and the vessels right below your skin have to dilate to get rid of that fluid,” says Peeke. “So you do get a natural glow, and that’s a nice thing—but that’s all you get, end of story.”

Other touted health benefits of sweat beds include claims that they burn calories and have the same effect on the body as a hard workout. However, Peeke says that this is hogwash.

Luckily, Selena Gomez isn’t just lying around in a sweaty, burrito shaped bed to get in shape. Even though she dislikes working out, she also earns her sweat the hard way by going on hikes and doing Pilates.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]