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Sweat as an indivation of calories burned?
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OP, you should google how many calories shivering burns. It will blow your mind. I wonder what would happen if you swung kettlebells barely clothed in a blizzard?!?!?!
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MissusMoon wrote: »OP, you should google how many calories shivering burns. It will blow your mind. I wonder what would happen if you swung kettlebells barely clothed in a blizzard?!?!?!
Nice! Lol. I should try that0 -
cerise_noir wrote: »singingflutelady wrote: »I also have a friend who never sweats and she works out hard!
Heck, I sweat in the middle of the winter -25c when I am walking outside. And then there is anxiety......
And there are those of us who suffer from hyperhydrosis
(thankfully not as badly as some) 1 -
paulgads82 wrote: »I sweat in the sauna. My friend sweats doing just about anything.
I think I'm your friend Paul!
I sweat doing just about anything. When I run, I break out in a sweat after about 3 minutes. Even on my long runs, ~6.5-7 miles, my heart rate never gets above 145. I still look like I ran right into a lake.
I recently cut my hair to be right above my shoulders because it's coming to be summer time here in Chicago, and my back sweat makes my hair stick to me and look like I went swimming!
So no. It's more about keeping your body cool.
I do agree that some exertion will make you sweat a bit more, but it's not really strongly tied with higher calorie burn.
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Meh, I think I actually agree with the OP. If an individual goes into a situation where all personal and environmental factors are controlled, and works out on two different days under the same exact conditions for the same amount of time, generally speaking, that individual could use sweat production as an indication of energy expended (so long as sweat was present in at least one of the workouts). While sweat characteristics will vary greatly from person to person, they are unlikely to vary from day to day when all other factors, including personal factors are the same. It would only be a general indication though.0
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No. If I run in the winter, I can't sweat. If I run the same distance in the summer, I can sweat freely. No effect on calories, except that in the winter it's more comfortable (I am in Florida) so I can do more, so I burn more.
Swimming in very cold water burns marginally more calories than in warmer water, so the (small) effect goes in the other direction, bodies work more trying to keep you warm during exercise when it's cold.
If you are just asking if more effort = more calories burned? Yeah probably, if you can sustain it for the same time. But it doesn't have anything to do with sweat, sweat will reduce your weight because it weighs something and it's leaving you, but that's water weight.0 -
I'm sure there's some correlation, probably weak, but why would you want to rely on it when so many other factors are going to fubar even the most basic guess you could make from how much you sweat?0
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No. If I run in the winter, I can't sweat. If I run the same distance in the summer, I can sweat freely. No effect on calories, except that in the winter it's more comfortable (I am in Florida) so I can do more, so I burn more.
Swimming in very cold water burns marginally more calories than in warmer water, so the (small) effect goes in the other direction, bodies work more trying to keep you warm during exercise when it's cold.
If you are just asking if more effort = more calories burned? Yeah probably, if you can sustain it for the same time. But it doesn't have anything to do with sweat, sweat will reduce your weight because it weighs something and it's leaving you, but that's water weight.
Yes. But he is saying if all conditions were kept the same. So he is not comparing running in the winter to running in the summer. He is saying, if all things were the same (for both the environment and the person), sweat would be an indication of effort and therefore calories burned.
At least I think that is what he is saying. Feel free to jump in if you want, OP. Also feel free to ask the mods to fix the typo
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NorthCascades wrote: »I'm sure there's some correlation, probably weak, but why would you want to rely on it when so many other factors are going to fubar even the most basic guess you could make from how much you sweat?
Meh, it's a good general check. If you generally sweat end up with a drenched shirt but this workout your shirt is barely wet, it's worth taking note of it and maybe investigating more. Of course if the difference is that drastic, you'd probably have a good idea as to the reason why. I would think.0 -
It's useless as an indicator of calorie burn. Sometimes your body just runs hotter than other times.
For instance, it is always 71 degrees F in my house. I sleep in shorts and a tshirt. Some nights I don't sweat at all. Others I wake up a sticky, sweaty mess.
Did I sleep more vigorously the nights I sweated?6 -
Carlos_421 wrote: »It's useless as an indicator of calorie burn. Sometimes your body just runs hotter than other times.
For instance, it is always 71 degrees F in my house. I sleep in shorts and a tshirt. Some nights I don't sweat at all. Others I wake up a sticky, sweaty mess.
Did I sleep more vigorously the nights I sweated?
Air conditioning doesn't always maintain the relative humidity of the area. Also, the state of your body in sleep is markedly different than that of exercise. Wouldn't you say?
I don't think sweat would be an accurate measure at all, but it is useful for a general indivation of intensity.
ETA: in a lot of cases. Prolly not much help for some power lifting workouts.
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Christine_72 wrote: »I don't think so. I sweat buckets exercising outside in summer. Now that it's cold here I barely perspire doing the exact same exercise. My fitbit doesn't give me different readings, it is not however a HR monitor which could make a difference??
it could easily make a difference in giving a false reading.
HR tends to go up higher if body trying to cool than otherwise would be needed.
And then if sweating tons and blood thickens - higher HR to pump that too.
All heat-elevated HR readings.
Shoot - do the exact same pace for 60 min noting the HR every 5 min - despite moving the same mass the same pace with likely the same form - HR will almost always progress up by the end of the workout - but you weren't working out any harder.
That's why HR-based calorie burn can be useful - but you have to know the caveats of false elevated-readings for calorie burn.0 -
Yes you would sweat more if all conditions were exactly the same except the intensity of excercise (im referring to the same individual under the same conditions) because your body would be creating more heat and would have to cool itself more. Simple right?0
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Yes it is a pointless remark but i just thought because i noticed it maybe others would notice it for themselves0
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derek1237654 wrote: »Yes you would sweat more if all conditions were exactly the same except the intensity of excercise (im referring to the same individual under the same conditions) because your body would be creating more heat and would have to cool itself more. Simple right?
It's not always the case though. Like I mentioned earlier, the body can build up heat and sweat more profusely over time (at least in my case) so all things equal and during the exact same workout in constant conditions in a room with a treadmill I sweat more towards the end even though I taper my intensity down in the last 20 minutes of a long run. When I'm done and I stop (no intensity) I sweat even more. It's a very inaccurate measure since now two days have the exact same conditions. It's more of a thought experiment than something you could make use of practically.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I don't think so. I sweat buckets exercising outside in summer. Now that it's cold here I barely perspire doing the exact same exercise. My fitbit doesn't give me different readings, it is not however a HR monitor which could make a difference??
it could easily make a difference in giving a false reading.
HR tends to go up higher if body trying to cool than otherwise would be needed.
And then if sweating tons and blood thickens - higher HR to pump that too.
All heat-elevated HR readings.
Shoot - do the exact same pace for 60 min noting the HR every 5 min - despite moving the same mass the same pace with likely the same form - HR will almost always progress up by the end of the workout - but you weren't working out any harder.
That's why HR-based calorie burn can be useful - but you have to know the caveats of false elevated-readings for calorie burn.
To put some numbers on this....
My HRM has been calibrated with my VO2 max and max HR settings and seems to be pretty accurate.
In winter I train on an expensive power meter equipped cycle trainer - it accurately measures your actual power output and uses that for calorie estimates. Under perfect conditions the calorie burns shown (they are still estimates remember!) are almost identical (often +/- 1%).
A fast one hour time trial at a constant high (for me) power output for the entire 60 minutes will see me at the half hour point at about 400 cals on both the power meter and HRM, HR is fairly constant with perhaps a little drift.
And then I really overheat, HR climbs steadily, sweating heavily and working far harder despite keeping power output the same.
By the hour mark the power meter shows 800 cals and my HRM shows 900'ish.
There's a metabolic energy cost of my body having to pump extra blood to the skin surface for cooling (in addition to the working muscles), heart working harder, breathing harder. But it's highly unlikely to be 100 cals extra.
So the energy output calorie estimate on the bike is probably giving me a slightly low calorie estimate and the HRM is probably giving me a very high reading.
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derek1237654 wrote: »Yes you would sweat more if all conditions were exactly the same except the intensity of excercise (im referring to the same individual under the same conditions) because your body would be creating more heat and would have to cool itself more. Simple right?
I like how you keep asking questions you think you know the answer to, then dismiss everything that conflicts with your beliefs.
It's a gift8 -
FunkyTobias wrote: »derek1237654 wrote: »Yes you would sweat more if all conditions were exactly the same except the intensity of excercise (im referring to the same individual under the same conditions) because your body would be creating more heat and would have to cool itself more. Simple right?
I like how you keep asking questions you think you know the answer to, then dismiss everything that conflicts with your beliefs.
It's a gift
I am surprised that this thread is still going on and OP still dismisses, and no matter how you slice and dice it up, all statements, comments, debate, fact or truths will not matter in the end.
I think it is time to look for case studies and start posting.0 -
derek1237654 wrote: »Yes you would sweat more if all conditions were exactly the same except the intensity of excercise (im referring to the same individual under the same conditions) because your body would be creating more heat and would have to cool itself more. Simple right?
Your body has to work to warm itself.
As for cooling, sweating and breathing are your only mechanisms (neither of which can be considered a real calorie burner). You don't have an internal refrigeration unit, just a furnace.
If you want temperature to work in favor of burning more calories, get cold so that you have to burn more to stay warm. Even then, it's negligible at best.0 -
I drink water like crazy but when I work out, no matter how hard, I barely break a sweat. Perhaps I'm broken? But I've lost 21 lbs so far and am gaining muscle, so I must be doing something right. I sweat when the sun is shining directly on me... But I hike 4 miles or do intensive cardio or weight lift - I don't have anything.0
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