Does More Sweat = More Calories Burned?

Jun 22, 2022

Edited by: Danielle Abel

Sweating is INDEPENDENT of calorie burn

Here’s why⁣:

Sweating

Sweating is the result of diverting blood flow away from your organs and closer to your skin. This allows the warm blood to dissipate heat through the skin and cool the body down.

 

Calorie Burning is a completely unrelated physiological process

 â£Calories are burned when your muscles (or brain or other organs) consume oxygen. If your heart rate rises, your muscles consume more oxygen and you burn more calories.⁣

 â£The process of diverting blood flow and sweating burns almost exactly 0 calories. ⁣

 The process of your muscles using energy to move and then using oxygen to resupply the energy they are using is directly related to and responsible entirely for calorie burn from exercise. ⁣

⁣

Practically speaking

⁣Doing your group fitness class in a hot room feels harder, but will not allow you to work at as high of a heart rate and will result in FEWER calories burned than a non-heated room. ⁣

Heated low intensity (Yoga, Sitting in a Sauna, etc.) can increase your heart rate slightly higher than doing the same activity not heated. 10 extra beats per minute for 30 minutes or an hour, and you’re looking at an extra maybe 30 calories. Again this is from the higher heart rate, NOT the process of sweating. ⁣

 Layering up in hoodies for your cardio session DOES NOT make you burn more fat. Once again, calorie burn is directly related to your heart rate.⁣

 While we’re myth-busting, out-of-shape people don’t sweat more. You actually tend to sweat more as your fitness level improves, because of increased blood plasma volume.

 
 
 
 
 
 

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