When you’re working hard — slamming weights at the gym, working outside, getting in your daily cardio — you may start to build up a good sweat. This response just means that your body is heating up from the activity and needs to regulate your internal temperature. Losing all that fluid must make a difference in the calories you burn, right? Well… not exactly.
Sweat is a biological response to exertion, but isn’t a calorie-burning tool in and of itself. It’s common to associate sweat with calorie expenditure and weight loss because they can go hand-in-hand. But, does sweating burn more calories?
How many calories does sweating burn?
Now that we’re all warmed up – let’s talk about it. You may or may not burn more calories when you sweat, but sweating is not necessarily the reason. We sweat to regulate internal heat from vigorous activity or hot climates, so you could be burning more calories while you’re sweating – not necessarily because you’re sweating.
Sure, you can burn calories sweating, but it may not be as many as you’d think — or hope. Sweating won’t burn a substantial amount of calories, but it will help you lose water weight. In a way, it may look like burned calories when you step on the scale, but in reality, you’ve simply sweated out some of your body’s stored water.
Sweating is a bodily function, and every bodily function will naturally burn calories to operate, but the amount isn’t significant compared to the calories you are burning from the activity that caused you to sweat in the first place.
Let’s paint the picture: You take a mile-long run on a particularly calm day. The sun is out but it isn’t too hot. As you break a sweat, you can count on the fact that your body is burning calories. A general estimate is that a person will burn about 100 calories per mile, but this isn’t because you’re sweating.
Well, do you burn more calories in the heat? If it was a hot day and you were simply relaxing outside, the same sweat isn’t going to burn nearly as many calories. In fact, sweating in this scenario wouldn’t even burn a significant amount of calories that we can measure. Depending on the person, it could be less than 1 calorie up to tens of calories per hour of sweating. Either way, if you’re burning calories sweating, you likely won’t notice compared to the calories burned from physical activity.
Why do some people tend to sweat more than others?
Everyone sweats a little differently. Calories burned when sweating are immeasurable because of how drastic these differences can be from person to person. But, does sweating burn more calories? Factors like metabolic rate, medical history, medications, and hormones can all impact how much a person sweats, and all of these influences will impact calorie expenditure more than sweat.
What are the benefits of sweat?
Did you know the human body has between 2-4 million sweat glands? These sweat glands interconnect with various other bodily processes and functions. Aside from thermoregulation, sweat is responsible for detoxification: removing unwanted toxins like heavy metals, alcohol, and certain environmental chemicals from the body. While the liver and kidneys take on the main responsibility of detoxification, you could find trace elements of these toxins in your sweat.
There is sodium and potassium in sweat, contributing to the skin’s natural barrier. Believe it or not, sweat can actually be moisturizing for the skin as proper circulation nourishes the skin cells. Sweat also contains antimicrobial properties like dermcidin, a powerful antibiotic that protects against bacteria and other infection-causing pathogens. Even though you may not really burn calories sweating, you can protect your skin!
The Science Behind Sweat and Calorie Expenditure
Sweat is made up of 99% water with the remaining 1% being a mixture of electrolytes, toxins, and other waste products. The sweat glands are activated by the hypothalamus, which is responsible for things like hormone control, blood pressure, sleep, and temperature.
When the body is active, it generates heat as a byproduct of the calorie expenditure. The hypothalamus recognizes this and sends signals to your body to cool off — thus, sweat. While sweating itself may not burn a whole lot of calories, the process your body goes through to cool down after vigorous activity will.
Are there any risks to sweating?
Sweating can pose some dangerous risks if you push your body too far. Now, this doesn’t mean more sweat equals more danger. As mentioned earlier, people naturally sweat at different rates. The risks associated with sweating are typically related to overexertion. Your body will tell you that you have overexerted and are over-sweating in a few different ways.
Dehydration
Because you lose fluid when you sweat, this is one of the most common symptoms of overexertion. While you are in a hot environment or are engaging in vigorous physical activity, it is critical to take water breaks and replenish the fluid that you lose through sweating. Otherwise, you may feel symptoms of dry mouth, dark urine, fatigue, and dizziness. In extreme cases, dehydration can lead to delirium, unconsciousness, and organ damage.
Fainting
A fainting spell typically happens because of a sudden drop in blood pressure, as this reduces the blood flow and oxygen to the brain. When you are dehydrated, your circulating blood volume decreases. This can cause sudden symptoms of dizziness, nausea, and loss of consciousness. Staying hydrated and adding extra electrolytes on sweat-heavy days can prevent these sickly feelings of fatigue and vertigo, replenishing your body to prevent a drop in blood pressure.
Lack of Urination
When you are dehydrated, your body goes into conservation mode and tries to retain as much water as possible. This can make it difficult to urinate, even if you feel like you need to. Moreover, you may experience darker urine or more painful urination.
Staying hydrated through sweat-heavy activity is optimal, but if you need to rehydrate after losing excessive fluid, do not chug or force yourself to drink a lot of water at once. Instead, monitor your condition while consuming between 8-16 fl oz of water over the course of an hour. Shocking your body with a large amount of water may cause symptoms of nausea or vomiting – which will only make the dehydration worse.
Rapid Breathing or Heartbeat
Over-sweating causes excessive loss of fluid and electrolytes, putting a strain on the cardiovascular system. One of the first symptoms of this strain is rapid breathing or heartbeat. Vigorous physical activity can be good for the cardiovascular system, but it is important to understand your body’s limits! Generally speaking, doctors recommend 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity every day to promote cardiovascular strength. Overexerting can lead to tachycardia (rapid heart rate) and palpitations.
Understanding Hyperhidrosis and Hypohidrosis
Did you know there are sweat-related medical conditions? Whether you under-sweat or over-sweat, there’s a name (and reason) for it! These symptoms could be caused by a genetic predisposition or be the product of another condition. Pregnancy, menopause, infections, respiratory conditions, and neurological conditions can all contribute to different sweating conditions.
Hyperhidrosis is a condition characterized by excessive abnormal sweating. During a workout or on a hot day, sweating is completely normal; when you aren’t provoked to regulate body temperature, excessive sweating could be an indicator of this condition. While there is no cure for hyperhidrosis, prescription-strength antiperspirants and other medications may be offered as ways to lessen symptoms.
On the other hand, hypohidrosis is a condition described as having a lack of sweat. While this may be the dream for someone with hyperhidrosis, having the former could actually be dangerous. Sweating is your body’s process to regulate internal temperature and prevent overheating. People with hypohidrosis are more sensitive to heat and will have a higher risk of developing heat stroke because of the inability to regulate the temperature.
Does Sweating Help Lose Weight?
It’s a common question: when you sweat do you lose weight? Well, correlation doesn’t equal causation. Just because you see that you’ve lost weight on the scale after sweat-inducing activity does not mean that the sweat itself is responsible. Any weight you lose from sweating is just water weight, but the activity itself can impact your weight loss goals.
Loss of fluids (sweating) is a regulatory process that helps the body cool down when internal temperatures rise. Connecting water loss to weight loss can actually be dangerous if it misleads people into dehydrating themselves throughout a workout. Hydration is actually the key to weight loss.
Without water, it would be impossible for the body to metabolize any stored fat and carbohydrates. This could cause a threatening strain on the body during intense physical activity like vigorous exercise. To lose weight, the body needs to go into a fat-loss cycle.
Does sweat burn fat? No. Habits like sleeping more, eating a high-protein diet, and keeping a consistent workout schedule will promote a fat-loss response.
Burning Calories Sweating in a nutshell
That’s a lot of information — let’s cool down. Sweat is an important bodily function that not only works to regulate the body’s internal temperature, but also plays a role in circulation, immune function, and electrolyte balance. Don’t be ashamed; we need to sweat! Your sweat is what stops you from fainting after a good workout or vomiting on a hot day. Instead, embrace your millions of sweat glands to keep you healthy, balanced, and cooled off.
