Sweating Meaning Losing Weight

You put in the work. You put out a ton of sweat. Surely, you've lost weight, right? Downer alert: Sweating only sort of helps you lose weight. Technically, sweating can take your weight down, which explains why sauna suits are popular with people like wrestlers who need to make weight in a hurry. If you sweat out 20 ounces of fluid, you’ll “lose” 20 ounces on the scale.

But you’ll bring those pounds right back on when you down that much water after your workout (which you should do), explains Robert A. Huggins, Ph.D., president of research and athlete performance and safety at the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut. “It’s not fat mass, which is the weight most people have the goal of losing, ” he says.

Of course, over time, working out consistently can help you lose weight, but you can’t judge how effective your workout is just by how much you sweat.

The Secret Behind Sweating And Weight Loss

Shedding a lot of sweat isn’t the main indicator that you worked hard. True, the harder you work out, the more you’ll sweat. But fluid loss doesn’t tell you the whole story.

“Each person has their own sweat rate, and it can change over time, ” says Huggins. So the guy next to you on the treadmill sweating buckets isn’t necessarily outpacing you. On top of that, how much you sweat can depend on a number of things:

Burn calories or build muscle, you have to replace the fluid you’re losing. Otherwise, your heart rate will go up and your body will likely slow down during that workout, which isn’t going to help you get the weight loss workout you were going for.

Weight Loss Exercise Types

Here’s how it works: “You have a set amount of blood that has to go to multiple places when you’re working out—it needs to go to your brain, your muscles, and your skin for cooling, ” Huggins says. When you sweat, your blood volume decreases if you don’t replace the fluids you’re losing. Your brain, muscles, and skin still need it, but now there’s less to go around. So your heart rate increases, your workout feels harder, and you’ll probably slow down (or pass out if you really don’t pay attention to what it’s telling you).

The ultimate way to keep your workout going during that session as well as day after day is to replace what you lost with this simple move, says Huggins.

Marty Munson, currently the health director of Men's Health, has been a health editor at properties including Marie Claire, Prevention, Shape and RealAge. She's also certified as a swim and triathlon coach.

Sweating It Out: Is There Really Any Benefit?

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Technically, no. You’ll probably break a sweat during an intense fat-burning workout — but the sweat isn’t the reason you burn fat. So even if you’re sitting in a pool of your own sweat, that doesn’t automatically mean you’ve just burned a ton of fat.

“Fat burning is a metabolic process, ” says Jennifer Novak, M.S., C.S.C.S., performance recovery coach, and founder of PEAK Symmetry Performance Strategies. When you exercise, your body breaks down carbohydrates and fats in order to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) — your body’s energy currency.

Sweating, on the other hand, is a cooling process. When your core body temperature increases — either from exercise or from heat — your brain signals that it’s time to sweat. As the moisture on your skin evaporates into the air, it takes some heat with it, which helps to lower your body temp back to normal.

Does Sweating Make You Lose Weight?

“The main reason we sweat during a workout is the energy we’re expending is generating internal body heat, ” Novak says. So if you’re working out hard enough to sweat, you’re burning calories in the process.

“Typically, carbohydrates are used first, ” she adds. “But because they’re stored in limited amounts in the muscles and liver, after a certain time period, the body must go to fat reserves to burn for energy.”

“If you hop on the scale after a sweaty workout, you may be a bit lighter — but it’s most likely water weight, ” Novak explains.

What Causes Night Sweats And When To Worry

In other words, you’ll probably put that little bit of weight back on as soon as you rehydrate. (And you definitely need to rehydrate, so please guzzle that water!)

If your workout is long or intense, sweating may also cause you to lose some electrolytes and minerals. So, when you’re replenishing fluids after your workout, you may also want to restore those electrolytes and minerals — especially if you’ve been sweating buckets.

Sports drinks are one option for replenishing electrolytes, but they’re often loaded with sugar. “Instead, look for brands of water that contain added electrolytes and minerals, without all the added sugars or artificial sweeteners, ” Novak says.

Does Sweating Help You Lose Weight Faster?

Taken during activity, Beachbody Performance Hydrate can help optimize fluid balance and absorption. That’s important not only for replacing what’s lost, but also for its impact on performance during a workout.*

If you’re exercising for weight loss, you may be wondering how you can tell if you’re burning fat. Short answer: If you’re exercising at an intensity that gets you sweating, it’s likely that you’re burning some fat.

“But sweating alone isn’t a foolproof gauge for fat burn, ” Novak says. “For starters, some people naturally sweat more than others. And adding heat to the mix — by exercising outdoors in the summer, or in a heated room — will speed up the onset of sweat, ” she adds.

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So if you want to maximize your fat burn, focus more on your level of intensity rather than your level of sweatiness.

Your body favors fat as fuel when you’re working at a lower intensity (50 percent of your maximum capacity) or for a longer duration. As you increase the intensity, your body shifts to using primarily carbs because they’re quicker to access on short notice.

You don’t have to sweat, but you probably will — especially if you do a challenging full-body workout that mixes strength training and cardio, like #mbf Muscle Burns Fat and #mbfa Muscle Burns Fat Advanced or the FIRE workouts in FIRE AND FLOW.

What Is The Link Between Sweating, Weight Loss & Calories?

And while the sweat itself won’t burn fat, it’s a great reminder that you just crushed a workout that’ll get you one step closer to your goals.‌ like you've worked pretty hard. And when you hop on the scale — hey! — it might even read a few pounds lighter. But does that actually mean that you've lost fat and are getting closer to your weight-loss goal?

The answer might seem like an obvious yes. But the truth is, sweating tons doesn't necessarily mean you're on the path to a smaller jeans size. Here's everything you need to know about sweating and weight loss, plus why sweating too much is dangerous.

Sweat is a liquid that's released from your sweat glands to help you stay cool when your body temp rises, per the U.S. National Library of Medicine. That can happen during physical activity, of course. But if it's really hot and humid, you can be dripping sweat without even lifting a finger.

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Sweat is mostly water, along with some salt and tiny amounts of other compounds like ammonia and urea. It doesn't contain any fat. (Also, a fun fact: The stuff doesn't actually smell on its own at all. It only starts to reek when it mixes with the bacteria on your skin, according to the International Hyperhidrosis Society.)

Can sweating help you lose weight? The answer is… kind of, but not directly. In order to lose weight, you need to burn calories. One pound of fat contains about 3, 500 calories of stored energy, so in order to lose 1 pound, that's the number of calories you'd need to burn.

Sweating in and of itself, though, doesn't burn calories. You can be lying down in a sauna and sweating buckets or sitting outside on a 100-degree day, explains Los Angeles-based personal trainer Jill Brown. If you're not moving, you're most likely not burning any more calories than if you were sitting in an air-conditioned room.

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‌ lead to temporary weight loss, but the pounds are from water, not body fat. It's possible for your body weight to fluctuate 3 to 5 pounds just from water retention or loss, Brown says. So after guzzling a few glasses of H2O to rehydrate, your weight will be right back to where it was before