[loveit]

im trying to understand what sweating has to do with excersie. i google it and somepeople say its water weight. other it shows your burning calories and other says it just becuz your hot????



so my question is the more i sweat the more i lose weight?
can i excerise with out going to the point of sweating?
is sweat calories, fat, or water being lost?

[saef]

I lose about two pounds after a good sweaty session at the gym -- I've measured, out of curiosity -- but drinking water over the next hour or so puts them right back on. I'd chalk that up to water weight.

Sweatiness does mean I've worked at a certain rate, but it's far more related to the level of humidity in the air. After all, I can work up a sweat on some summer mornings just from walking around in my room after my shower, getting dressed & making the bed & etc. This doesn't happen in the winter. But it doesn't mean I'm more active, burning more calories or losing more weight.

Or are you asking where the fat goes? Yeah, if you look at it in the most simplistic fashion, some of it is basically sweated & peed out of your body. But I don't think just those two things makes you lose weight.

If you want to know how hard you worked, go by your heart rate monitor to check the intensity. The amount of sweat won't tell you.

[mandalinn82]

Sweat = water weight being lost. There's no fat in sweat, so sweating more won't make you lose more weight than the same level of exertion where you don't sweat (for example, in a pool). Sweat is just how your body cools itself off.

[lucysam77]

As I understand it sweating is just fluids escaping your pores in order to cool the skin and has no effect in weight loss since you will recoup that fluid weight the next time your take a drink.

[ennay]

yes sweat = water + some electrolytes.

I ran 6 miles in the hills this morning and was slightly underdressed and didnt sweat that much (relatively). I still burned waaaaaay more calories than I did last night when I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in night sweats (seriously, If I started the night sweats when I hit puberty will they go away at menopause? Please?)

Sweat is completely unrelated to calories burned. Except that in the same conditions, the harder you work the hotter your body gets the more you sweat.

That being said it is really hard to work really hard and not sweat. And the more you workout and sweat the more efficient your body becomes at cooling itself and you will sweat more. I sweat buckets now. I used to not sweat that much and was prone to heat exhaustion. Trying to avoid sweating during exercise probably means you aren't working as hard as you could unless it is REALLY cold where you are working out. Even in freezing temps I sweat some.

[Tarisaande]

If you workout the same intensity in a cool room versus a warm room, you will burn approximately the same amount of calories of energy, but will sweat more in the warm room. Sweat is just lost water. When the body metabolizes fat/protein/sugar one of the byproducts is water, but the vast majority of water in sweat is from the body cooling itself, not energy expenditure.


Work out where you feel comfortable. If a cooler environment is more comfortable, you will get a better workout because you can go more intensely.

I actually like working out in cooler rooms because I DON'T sweat as much. It's the only time I don't mind being in a cool room, as I am cold all the time, because I know in a couple minutes I won't be cold anymore, lol. Also, too warm a room makes me feel ill.