Does Sweating Burn Calories?

Does sweating make you lose weight? Many fitness enthusiasts wonder whether sweating can help you shed those extra pounds or if it’s just a myth.

In this article, we’ll explore the link between sweating and weight loss, and if people who sweat more lose more weight.

Does sweating help you lose weight?

Simply sweating by itself doesn’t result in a significant amount of calorie burn. Just because you’re sweating doesn’t necessarily mean you’re burning calories or losing weight. In fact, sweating and weight loss aren’t entirely related.

Sweating is actually your body’s way of regulating its temperature and isn’t necessarily an indicator of how hard your body is working.

When you sweat, you’re primarily losing water, not fat. So, any weight change you notice after sweating a lot is likely just temporary and you’ll probably gain it back after eating a meal or drinking water.

Why do we sweat?

Sweating is normal, let’s begin with that. More or less everyone sweats, unless there is something wrong with their sweat glands.

Sweat’s main function is to regulate your body’s temperature when your body heats up. When this water-rich secretion, sweat, evaporates off your skin, your body cools down naturally. 

That’s why it’s normal to sweat when exercising, as moving your muscles creates a certain amount of heat in your body. You can also sweat in hot and humid climates.

Does sweating when exercising mean you’re burning calories?

When you picture an efficient workout, you might be thinking of a red face and a sweaty t-shirt. However, sweating more doesn’t always mean that you’ll lose more weight.

Actually, the quantity of sweat we produce varies from one person to another. Everyone has a unique body. Some people have more active sweat glands than others, and people with more active sweat glands perspire more. That doesn’t mean they can burn more calories than others.

What other factors play a role in sweating?

There are several factors that can affect how much a person sweats.

• Body size: Larger individuals tend to sweat more because they have a larger surface area to cool down.
• Age: As people get older, their bodies become less tolerant to heat and their sweat production may change.
• Muscle mass: Muscle mass can influence how much a person sweats because muscle produces more heat than fat. For instance, if two people with the same body weight do the same workout, the person with more muscle mass will likely sweat more due to the extra heat generated by their muscles.
• Health status: Hormonal changes, the flu, and mental health conditions such as anxiety can all affect how much a person perspires.

What can you do to burn more calories?

If your goal is to maximize your calorie burn and lose weight, you have to increase the intensity of your workouts. As the workout intensity and calorie burn increase, it becomes easier to lose weight.

Remember that you can burn calories during activities where you don’t sweat much, too. For example, you still burn calories while swimming, lifting light weights, or exercising in wintertime when it’s cold outside. So you don’t have to be sweating to burn calories and therefore lose weight.

Healthy adults are recommended to do 30 minutes of moderate-intensity workouts five days a week. These could be brisk walking, jogging, cardio, weight lifting, or bodyweight workouts.

You can find cardio and other bodyweight workouts for every fitness level on Fitness Kompanion.

To sum up

Sweating alone isn’t a reliable indicator of how much weight you’re going to lose and how many calories you will burn. Likewise, the quantity of sweat doesn’t necessarily reflect how physically fit you are.

Several factors can influence the amount you sweat. If your goal is to lose weight, don’t fixate on sweating more, but rather on intensifying your workouts. Increasing the intensity of your exercise routine will likely produce better results than simply sweating more.