Sweating Promotes Weight Loss – Is It True?

There is still a general belief that the more intense you sweat during training, the greater your weight loss will be. However, this belief is incorrect. The calories burned cannot be translated into an abundance of sweat poured out during exercise.

If you believed the above statement to be true, you would also have to believe that people who naturally sweat little, will never be able to lose even a gram of extra fat.

Today we would like to explain to you how sweating  affects weight loss. Should the myth that the more we sweat the faster we lose unnecessary kilograms be debunked? We invite you to read!

Sweating, training and burning calories

Today, let’s think about what happens to our body during intense training, whether in the field or at the gym. Some people end up as wet as a rat, while for others the droplets of sweat are virtually unnoticeable.

Does this mean that those who did not sweat did not manage to burn as many calories as their hot colleagues? That they got less tired and their training would not be as effective as if they had shed hectoliters of sweat? In which case will the weight loss process be more efficient?

To answer the above questions, let’s analyze what happens in our body during training. Sweating is our body’s reaction to the excessively high temperature that our body reaches during intense physical exercise.

In short – the more we warm up, the more we expel water through the sweat glands located on the skin. Thanks to this, our body is able to cool down by a few degrees.

What determines the intensity of sweating?

It is worth noting that the number of sweat glands is saved in our genes from birth. So we are not all the same, and we all have a well-defined number of glands through which we release sweat . Scientific research has confirmed the thesis that the more sweat glands we have, the more we sweat.

As already mentioned, the number of sweat glands is genetically determined. The average number of sweat glands ranges from 2 to 4 million, and they are located in different areas of the body.

It is interesting that the female body has much more sweat glands than the male one. In many cases, up to 50% more. However, in men these glands are much more active than in women – hence their sweating is much more intense.

The differences in the composition of sweat should also be mentioned: the body of men contains more water, and their sweat is more acidic than women’s sweat.

However, when it comes to hormones, the ladies are undoubtedly winning this skirmish. In general, female athletes begin to sweat at a much higher temperature than male training. Their sweat also comes out of much deeper tissues than in men. Therefore, men sweat more intensely with the same effort.

What factors influence the intensity of sweating?

During training, during training, there is a strong expansion of blood vessels and heat dissipation in their vicinity.

The amount of sweating may also depend on other factors, such as:

• From the climate (moist and warm, it increases sweating)
• Training intensity
• A person’s tendency to consume alcohol and coffee
• Whether or not the person is a heavy smoker
• From the diet (spicy foods and spices increase body temperature and therefore increase sweating)
• Body weight and the amount of accumulated fat

How is it in the end? Does sweating accelerate weight loss?

Numerous scientific studies have shown that overweight people sweat more than people who take care to maintain a healthy body weight. The more body fat there is, the higher the body temperature. It is not for nothing that it is said that someone is warmed by a fat. Even with the slightest exertion, the body starts to produce sweat to instantly lower body temperature.

This fact confirms the thesis that by sweating alone, we do not burn calories. Fat loss is related to other factors such as the muscle mass and the thickness of the stored fat.

Yes, you can lose weight as a result of intense sweating, but in this case the fatty tissue remains intact – the only thing we excrete from the body is water with minerals. Sweat glands never expel burnt fat!

All the water lost during training should be immediately replenished by taking water or valuable isotonic drinks. Regular hydration is very important, both before, during and after training.

Sweating and burning calories

It should be emphasized that sweating has no effect on the caloric consumption of our body. So it is highly possible that even if you sweat a lot while exercising, you won’t be able to burn as many calories as a colleague who has not shed a drop of sweat.

So what’s it like to burn calories? We lose weight during intense training or aerobic exercise. However, this process has nothing to do with the amount of sweat you spill. Where are the burnt calories released? How many grams of fat you burn depends on the intensity of your training.

For example, during a 30-minute jog, we are able to burn about 300 calories, regardless of whether we sweat or not. As we said, sweat only regulates body temperature and has no effect on reducing body fat.

Think that if we were able to burn calories as sweating increased, it would be enough to sit in front of the heater, turn on the heating and lose weight while watching TV series. A sauna or midday sun would also be a good way to have a slim figure. Unfortunately, our body doesn’t work that way.

During which exercises do we intensively burn fat?

Now that we’ve debunked the myth that sweating increases fat loss, it’s time to present the best exercises to help you burn excess calories quickly and efficiently.

We are able to burn excess fat during medium or high intensity training, for example:

• Aerobic exercise
• Dynamic march
• Jogging
• Skiing
• Swimming
• Cycling
• Dance
• Box
• Practicing martial arts

During intense physical activity, the muscles of our body draw energy from the reserves of accumulated fat, hence the reduction of unnecessary kilograms. In combination with a healthy and balanced diet, the results should appear after just a few weeks of regular training.

But remember – to lose weight, you don’t have to sweat!