Is It True That The More I Sweat, The More I Lose Weight?

It is a common myth that the more sweaty your workout clothes become, the more weight you lose. That’s not true. Sweating doesn’t mean you’re burning wild calories.  You can sweat every day, but the weight doesn’t drop at all, does it? In this article, we answer the question: do you really lose more weight if you sweat more?

Sweating, weight loss and exercise

Let’s take a moment to see what happens at the gym or chewing track. After a workout or exercise class, some people are soaked in sweat and need to use a towel, take a shower, and change their clothes. In the same group, others are as dry and skinless as before the start of training.

Does the first person lose more weight than the second?

This is the prevailing belief. But just because many people believe it doesn’t make it true.  To be able to figure out whether producing more sweat means more calories burned, let’s see what happens in your body when you exercise.

Sports and body

When your body temperature gets too high, your body wants to cool down, so it introduces a sweating mechanism .  Basically, you excrete water through your sweat glands in your skin, which lowers your body temperature.

The amount of your sweat glands depends on your genes,  and they don’t work the same way in all people. Studies have shown that the more you sweat, the more sweat glands you have  (on average, people have 2-4 million sweat glands throughout their body).

Women often have more sweat glands than men, but men’s sweat glands are more active  (up to 50% more). In addition, women and men have different body compositions: men have much more water in their bodies and their sweat is more acidic.  The reason for this is hormonal differences.

For example, female athletes begin to grind at higher temperatures and deeper tissues. At the same attempt and at the same temperature, men sweat more. On the other hand, women have more mechanisms for cooling their bodies  (especially circulatory mechanisms).

Therefore, when you look around the gym, you are more likely to see men sweating and women with red skin  (especially on the face). This happens because the capillaries on the surface of the skin dilate and release heat.

How much you sweat also depends on the following factors:

• Save (moisture and heat cause more sweating)
• About the intensity of training
• If you drink alcohol or coffee
• If you smoke
• What you have eaten (hot foods increase your body temperature)
• Your weight or how much fat your body has

So if you sweat, will you lose weight?

It has been proven that overweight people sweat more than thinner people. Excess body fat raises body temperature as it acts as a “coat.” As a person moves and uses energy, the body sweats to let the heat out.

This means that sweating does not burn calories. Weight loss is more closely related to other factors such as muscle mass and adipose tissue. It is true that when you sweat you lose weight, but these grams are water and minerals that you lose with your sweat. In other words,  you don’t remove fat through your sweat glands.

What you lose while playing sports will get back as soon as you drink water or sports drinks. But never stop hydrating before, after and during sports. 

It’s important to make it clear that sweating doesn’t increase calorie burning,  so if you sweat a lot during your workout, you may still have burned less fat than a person who didn’t sweat a drop. So why exercise to lose weight?

Exercise and aerobic exercise have the ability to make you lose weight, but not because of how much you sweat while exercising.

So what causes weight loss? 

The intensity of the exercises you do.  For example, running for 30 minutes burns about 300 calories, no matter how wet your shirt is with sweat.

Don’t forget that sweat is what helps your body keep its temperature constant. It’s its job, not to help you lose weight to make you look good in a bikini.

If losing weight was as simple as sweating, all you should do is sit in front of the oven, go to the sauna or lie in the sun in the middle of the day. But it doesn’t work. 

Which sport burns fat?

We have already broken the myth that sweating means the same thing as losing weight. We have also said that if you want to lose weight, you need to choose a heavy or medium intensity sport. We are sure you want to know what this kind of sport is like!

Here is the answer:

• Aerobic training
• Light walking
• Jogging
• Skiing
• Swimming
• Cycling
• Dance
• Boxing
• Martial arts

When you do any of these activities, your muscles get energy from your fat stores, and thus reduce them. Together with a proper diet, they will help you get the results you want.

Remember: it  doesn’t matter how much you sweat. It matters how much you work.