The Science Behind Sweating Yourself Slim
Your body naturally regulates its temperature through perspiration, what is commonly known as sweating. When your body heats up, sweat is released from the sweat glands through the pores on your skin. The liquid evaporates, cooling the body and releasing heat. Excess heat can be as a result of exercise, warm temperatures, fever, anxiety or even stress.
Is sweating an outward sign that the body is burning more calories and releasing excess energy? Sweating can be a way of assessing how hard one is working, especially when you are exercising. However, it is not a sign that you are burning more calories. So what is the relationship between sweating and weight loss? This is discussed below.
Sweating and fat burning
Sweat consists of 99% water, and the rest is salt. There is no fat content in sweat. In fact, the process of perspiration does not require any burning of calories. The body burns a few calories when you shiver as the burning of calories produces more body heat. However, when sweating, heat is being diffused out of your body and not generated. In fact, an effective slimming treatment would also be cryotherapy which is being in an extremely cold temperature to burn calories.
Why does one sweat more than another?
How much you sweat depends on a number of factors. It can be as a result of age, your fitness level, weight, genetics and other environmental factors. The more weight you have, the more you will sweat when exercising because of the larger body mass to cool down. Also, one who is physically fit will sweat quicker because his or her body can efficiently regulate temperature. When your body cools faster, you are able to work out longer and harder.
So why does one weigh less after sweating?
It is true that one does shed some weight after sweating a lot, but the weight lost is water and not body weight. As mentioned earlier, sweat consists of water and salts, urea, sugars and ammonia. You lose some weight as it leaves your body and evaporates. This weight is regained the next time you hydrate. This temporary weight loss is what makes many to believe that they can shed excess weight through sweating.
What causes you to lose significant weight is not the sweating, but the exercise you are undertaking. Sweating is just a by-product of your efforts. If you really need to lose weight, it is advisable that you do cardio exercises and check your diet. Sweating will help your body to refresh and control temperature, even helping you to exercise for longer periods of time. However, sweating is not a barometer for how much weight you are losing, but it is a good gauge to how hard you are working.
