To sweat or not to sweat?

soon2bemrsott
soon2bemrsott Posts: 60
edited September 19 in Health and Weight Loss
So, I have been wondering, do you lose more when you sweat more? For example, I have been walking for a couple of months, and now that the weather is getting warmer, I notice I am sweating more on these walks. Now I don't have an HRM or any other way to determine exactly how many calories I am burning, but is there like a general rule for this? I know that I am not walking any faster or any further, so it is def just the heat...

Replies

  • SarahNicole317
    SarahNicole317 Posts: 302 Member
    Chances are, you aren't burning any more calories unless your heart rate is accelerated due to the heat. Sweating is merely your body's cooling system and increases the burn rate by a very minute percentage.
  • soon2bemrsott
    soon2bemrsott Posts: 60
    Yeah, I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. I keep thinking about like, high school wrestling when the kids gotta drop pounds, so they run around in trash bags and stuff. I didn't know if that was to lose more weight cause they are sweating more, or what.
    Thanks!!
  • fitnessperfection
    fitnessperfection Posts: 97 Member
    snf_05 is right. The extra calorie burn from your body attmepting to regulate your temp is minimal. But your body does burn calories in regulating your body temperature...just not as many as we would like to believe.
  • fitnessperfection
    fitnessperfection Posts: 97 Member
    Yeah, I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. I keep thinking about like, high school wrestling when the kids gotta drop pounds, so they run around in trash bags and stuff. I didn't know if that was to lose more weight cause they are sweating more, or what.
    Thanks!!

    He-hee! :laugh: Running around in trash bags causes you to lose water that you might be retaining. It is not healthy to do this...it is a temporary water loss that some see as weight loss. It is dangerous.
  • soon2bemrsott
    soon2bemrsott Posts: 60
    Yeah, I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. I keep thinking about like, high school wrestling when the kids gotta drop pounds, so they run around in trash bags and stuff. I didn't know if that was to lose more weight cause they are sweating more, or what.
    Thanks!!

    He-hee! :laugh: Running around in trash bags causes you to lose water that you might be retaining. It is not healthy to do this...it is a temporary water loss that some see as weight loss. It is dangerous.


    ooohhhhh, so it is just a temp fix that they are working for, now I get it. OMG I can just picture myself running around in a atrash bag, the neighbors would think I was crazy!!! :laugh:
  • sinisme
    sinisme Posts: 148 Member
    Yeah, I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. I keep thinking about like, high school wrestling when the kids gotta drop pounds, so they run around in trash bags and stuff. I didn't know if that was to lose more weight cause they are sweating more, or what.
    Thanks!!

    I totally remember doing this in high school for powerlifting... i hated not being able to make weight.. so i'd starve myself the night before ... they would always take us to get breakfast in the morning so there we were in our sweat suits jogging around the restaurant trying to lose what we could.... i'd wait til after weighing in to eat.
  • belldandy1
    belldandy1 Posts: 264 Member
    I read a study in some fitness magazine that said women who drank 8 glasses of Ice Cold Water every day lost an average of 10 pounds per year while women who drank the same about of room temperature water did not lose weight. They said in the study that women lost weight because their bodies had to work hard to warm them back up and get back to homeostasis. I am assuming that these women were already drinking a lot of water before the study otherwise the women drinking the room temperature water would have lost weight because of the health benefits of high water consumption.

    I think that anytime your body has to work harder to achieve homeostasis there will be some additional weight loss. But it is pretty minuscule.
  • j_g4ever
    j_g4ever Posts: 1,925 Member
    When I started out at 213 I remember sweating like crazy and it was embarrising. Now that I have lost almost 45lbs I have noticed the less i sweat. But today WOW I had a workout time for a shower.
  • leann_m_olson
    leann_m_olson Posts: 363 Member
    no scientific evidence but i heard somewhere your body actually burns more calories when it's cold trying to keep itself warm.
  • Sarandipity
    Sarandipity Posts: 1,560
    no scientific evidence but i heard somewhere your body actually burns more calories when it's cold trying to keep itself warm.

    My Biology teacher told us that in grade twelve. He said the best way to lose weight was to run around your house naked with the heat off in the winter.... :laugh:

    The basics of this is the body has to use more energy to shiver than it does to sweat. In reality it isn't going to make that much of a difference.
  • beckyi88
    beckyi88 Posts: 604
    One thing about sweating...it does indicate an improved fitness level...the faster you sweat...the fitter you supposedly are because your body is becoming more efficient.
    Just something I've heard over the years....
    and I've noticed for myself that when I'm returning to exercise, it takes forever to break a sweat...when I've been regularly exercising I'm dripping in minutes, even doing yoga.
  • soon2bemrsott
    soon2bemrsott Posts: 60
    One thing about sweating...it does indicate an improved fitness level...the faster you sweat...the fitter you supposedly are because your body is becoming more efficient.
    Just something I've heard over the years....
    and I've noticed for myself that when I'm returning to exercise, it takes forever to break a sweat...when I've been regularly exercising I'm dripping in minutes, even doing yoga.

    I'm not so sure about that one, I have always been a very heavy sweater (it takes next to nothing to make me start sweating, one trip up the steps I break out in a sweat) but I have never been a fit person...
  • SarahNicole317
    SarahNicole317 Posts: 302 Member
    It's the other way around... the less you sweat the more efficient your body is at cooling.
  • beckyi88
    beckyi88 Posts: 604
    Just repeating what I've heard....pretty sure it was Billy Blanks and that man sweats and is FIT! :wink:
    Also just sharing what I've personally experienced. :tongue:
    I never used to sweat at all, but now that I'm running and fat but fit, I sweat a lot.
  • GetFitBy2010
    GetFitBy2010 Posts: 91
    testing
  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    Just repeating what I've heard....pretty sure it was Billy Blanks and that man sweats and is FIT! :wink:
    Also just sharing what I've personally experienced. :tongue:
    I never used to sweat at all, but now that I'm running and fat but fit, I sweat a lot.

    I agree with you. A couple of months ago when I started working out, my face would turn bright red but I'd barely break out in a sweat. Now that I've been working out for a while, I sweat in under 5 minutes after starting my routine.
  • spicy618
    spicy618 Posts: 2,114 Member
    It's the other way around... the less you sweat the more efficient your body is at cooling.

    Wow, I really thought I was in better shape because I really sweat when working out. :cry:
  • SarahNicole317
    SarahNicole317 Posts: 302 Member
    If you are sweating more when you workout, it's probably because you are a higher fit version of your previous self and probably working much harder than before.
  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    If you are sweating more when you workout, it's probably because you are a higher fit version of your previous self and probably working much harder than before.

    Well, I am working harder overall, but I definitely start sweating more quickly in any given workout than I used to. So for doing the same exact workout, I start sweating right away now, whereas no matter how hard I worked before, I would barely break a sweat. Make sense?
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