sweating and calorie burn question

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zoombie_bear
zoombie_bear Posts: 963 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
When I started working-out, I sweated bullets and now with the same effort or heck even more I barely break a sweat and it's harder and hard to burn over 300-350cal for 1h wk-out, I wear a HRM with chest strap. I still know I've worked my *kitten* off, I huff and puff and want to die afterwards, lol. I've tried and change my wk-outs regularly and I wk-out daily 45-1h max.
Weight wise, down 75lbs since January2011... I'm down in the 120range, I used to sweat tones more when I heavier, could the fat loss be responsible of the sweating portion? just looking to know why? What is a good daily calorie burn also, I'm aiming for 300min, but just looking to know.... thanks for your reply...

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  • zoombie_bear
    zoombie_bear Posts: 963 Member
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    just found a reply on the board: Sweating only means that your body is trying to cool itself. It has nothing to do with how many calories you are burning, what do you guys think of this? Can you get a good wk-out in without the sweat???
  • icandothistrish85
    icandothistrish85 Posts: 116
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    I like to think that Sweat is the Body Fat Crying, LOL
  • MissFit0101
    MissFit0101 Posts: 2,382
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    Sweat is just your body's way of cooling itself... totally has nothing at all to do with how many calories you're burning. The more hydrated you are, the more you sweat by the way.
  • jannean2
    jannean2 Posts: 6
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    I can't help but wonder if you are drinking enough water. Maybe you don't have enough body fluids to sweat. Just a thought.
  • TrinaJ11
    TrinaJ11 Posts: 159 Member
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    From what I hear from others they were right. Sweating is only used to cool your body AND it helps rid your body of salt. The less salt you intake from your food and the thinner you get...the less sweat. Your heart is what burns the calories. Which is why they recommend HRM so that you can keep up with your heart rate and make sure you don't work it too hard.
  • daves160
    daves160 Posts: 600
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    Assuming you are keeping your HRM adjusted to your current stats, you will not burn as many calories as you did when you were heavier and your cardio-vascular system was out of shape. Hence, you will have to work harder/longer to burn the same amount of calories. Sweating in only your cooling system, and you will lose water weight if you don't replace it.

    I still sweat like crazy when I am working out inside with no air circulation.
  • CaptainMFP
    CaptainMFP Posts: 440 Member
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    Think of it this way. People with a higher percent body fat have more insulation. When they exert any kind of physical effort, the heat produced by muscle activity has a harder time leaving their body so body temp rises more rapidly. Sweating would reasonably be more intensive given that it is, as you rightly noted, a cooling mechanism. As your body fat has no doubt decreased, you have less insulation holding the heat in so you don't heat up as quickly and therefore don't necessarily need to produce as much sweat to cool your body. (Me? I notice I get colder a lot easier than I did six months ago!)

    There are other issues that affect this as well like relative humidity. I live in an extremely dry climate and when I bike and run, the accumulation of sweat is minimal...not because I'm not exerting effort or not sweating, but because it evaporates faster than it can accumulate.

    Finally, don't forget that as you lose weight and have less mass to move you will not necessarily burn as many calories. Total body mass is a major factor in total calorie burn as your HRM is likely showing. (I assume you've updated your weight in it and it's showing in your calorie estimate.)

    I keep careful track of all my numbers when running. The first time I ran faster than a 10 minute mile, I was 208 lbs. and burned an average of 16.6 calories per minute. Tonight, at 191 lbs. I did a similar pace but yielded only a 15.1 calorie per minute average burn.

    If it were me, I wouldn't sweat the lack of sweat...it's doesn't mean you're working any less hard. :smile:
  • CaptainMFP
    CaptainMFP Posts: 440 Member
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    Sweating in only your cooling system, and you will lose water weight if you don't replace it.

    Actually not true. There are a couple of other cooling mechanisms the body uses including dilation of blood vessels in the dermis of the skin (admittedly limited by the temperature gradient...in other words, if it's hotter than 98.6 F outside this won't cool you) as well as evaporative cooling through the lungs. Sorry, a teacher's gotta teach. :wink:

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