Does sweating help you lose weight faster?
Some people, in an effort to lose weight, put on an extra layer of clothing or thick belts and leave the class soaking wet.
This method really helps to lose weight, but only at the expense of water, which is 99% of sweat. Remaining 1% includes sodium chloride, trace elements, urea, lactate, a cocktail of fats, glycoproteins, triglycerides and other good things. But these substances are too small to provide at least some loss of excess weight.
Therefore, the assumption that fat can come out with sweat is a myth.
There is also an opinion that sweat can increase calorie expenditure, but this is not true either. Yes, the harder you work out, the more more sweat, because the body generates heat and it needs to cool itself.
But it doesn’t work in reverse. For example, yoga classes in comfortable conditions and in extreme heat (40 ° C) consume approximately the same number of calories – about three per minute.
This is true for cardio as well. In a small experiment tested how many calories a session on a stationary bike would burn in a room with temperatures of 20°C, 23°C, 26°C, and 30°C and found no significant difference in energy expenditure.
Thus, sweat does not increase calorie expenditure and does not affect the amount of fat in any way. And a few hundred grams that went with the water will easily be replenished after you drink.
Is it good to sweat while exercising?
It is believed that by sweating in training or in the sauna, you can cleanse the body.
These assumptions did not come out of nowhere. For example, in the series research found that persistent organic pollutants (POPs), bisphenol A and phthalates, substances that can disrupt the endocrine system, come out of the body with sweat.
However, in more recent scientific work these conclusions have been called into question. The fact is that in the studies mentioned above, samples were collected using a metal spatula, which scrapes off not only sweat from the body, but also the top layer of cells and sebum (sebum), which can contain harmful substances. Moreover, persistent organic pollutants fat-soluble and are excreted from the body with feces.
Sweat is 99% water, so its ability to deal well with persistent organic pollutants is questionable.
At the same time in experimentwhere special patches were used to collect sweat, bisphenol A was found in the urine, but it was not found in the sweat.
A number of studies have also found that sweat can be helpful in removing heavy metals. AT meta-analysis 2014 concluded that more cadmium, lead and mercury exit through the pores than through urine.
The review authors concluded that sweating while exercising or in the sauna may be beneficial for people who are exposed to toxic elements, such as workers in hazardous industries.
If you are not exposed to harmful substances, it is unlikely that excessive sweating will in any way affect your health.
Can excessive sweating hurt?
If you exercise intensely in hot conditions and do not drink, the loss of moisture through sweat can lead to dehydration. This state includes symptoms such as intense thirst, infrequent urination and dark urine, fatigue, weakness and confusion.
Even a little dehydration reduces performance in a workout, and severe dehydration can cause cramps, heat stroke, and kidney problems.
But even if you drink enough, excessive sweating can be dangerous.
Since not only water, but also electrolytes come out with sweat, drinking plenty of water can step on hyponatremia is sodium deficiency. Its symptoms are nausea and vomiting, headache, confusion, drowsiness and weakness.
For example, there was happeningwhen a young woman of 34 years old, after a 90-minute session of Bikram Yoga at a temperature of 40 ° C, drank 3.5 liters of water and was taken to the hospital with shortness of breath, convulsions, nausea and weakness.
Thus, specifically increasing sweating during training is not only useless for the figure and health, but sometimes dangerous.
And if you are looking for a way to increase the benefits of your activities, pay attention to the diet. Healthy eating habits will help the body much more than the extra liter of sweat you lose during exercise.