2 min
In the summertime, here in South Florida, we sweat a lot.
We leave the gym drenched in sweat, sometimes exhausted, and feeling like we worked really hard.
We hear this all the time in the gym: “I was drenched, that must’ve been a great workout!”
While a body covered in sweat can feel like a badge of honor, it doesn’t reflect how hard you worked or the number of calories you burned.
In this blog post, we will break down what sweat really means and how you can burn more calories.
Sweat is your body’s natural way of cooling itself down.
When your core temperature rises, due to exercise, heat, or stress, your body sweats.
As the moisture evaporates from your skin, it cools you down.
Some people sweat more than others, and that’s influenced by genetics, fitness level, gender, environment, and hydration status. It has little to do with fat loss.
The bottomline here is that sweat is a natural response to your body temperature rising, and doesn’t mean that you are burning more calories.
Go for a 20-minute walk in 40 degrees. You might not sweat at all, but you will use energy and burn calories.
If you lift weights in a cold gym, your muscles will work, break down tissue, which will require energy and repair.
On the flip side, you could sit in a sauna, sweat profusely for 20 minutes, and barely burn more than a few dozen calories. Sweat ≠ work.
Yes, you can sweat more and burn more calories- but only indirectly.
Higher temperatures can increase your heart rate, which could slightly raise your energy output. And high-intensity workouts that make you sweat do often burn a lot of calories.
But remember, it’s the intensity, not the sweat that it causing you to burn calories.
When you sweat a lot, especially in hot environments or long workouts, you can lose a few pounds.
This, however, is not fat loss, but in fact just water. Once you rehydrate, you’ll regain the weight.
If lasting change is your goal, the focus shouldn’t be on how much you sweat, it should be on how effectively you’re burning fat.
Higher intensity: The more muscle groups you involve and the higher your heart rate, the more energy you’ll expend.
Strength training: Lifting weights creates muscle breakdown that requires energy to repair, which continues to burn calories after your workout ends.
Longer duration: All else equal, more time under tension burns more total energy.
Muscle mass: The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Lean tissue is metabolically active.
So, here’s the simple fitness formula to effectively lose weight, gain muscle, and be fit for life: Build muscle and burn more calories by strength training 3x/week with progressive overload and consistent 45–60 minute workouts.
Sweating feels good and it’s a sign that your body is cooling itself and working hard. But it’s not the best measure of calorie burn or fat loss.
Here’s a better way to measure the effectiveness of your workouts:
So next time you finish a workout and don’t look like you walked through a storm, don’t sweat it.
Chat with a coach to learn more about what program will fit your lifestyle and your goals.
