Fat Loss Through Excessive Sweating Does Not Work

Be cool!

Over the years, I have observed quite a number of people who come into the gym, all bundled up in rubberized or other heat restrictive polyester clothing with long sleeves and pants. They seem to believe that increasing sweat production by wearing this kind of clothing will give them a "better " workout in terms of losing weight. Some even appear to have fallen prey to ads of unscrupulous business people which have made them believe that wearing a neoprene belt around their waists would help reduce their belly fat. As already explained in a previous article, spot-reduction of any kind is impossible. But, while wearing a neoprene belt is just useless and uncomfortable, it is at least not as health-compromising as wrapping your whole body up in rubberized clothes, plastic or even neoprene suits during your work out! These types of heat- trapping clothes will not only impair your athletic performance, but predispose you to heat exhaustion and dehydration. They are a hazard to your health and do nothing at all to bring you any closer to achieving your bodyfat goals.

When you work out your heart beats faster, you breathe harder, your blood circulation and your body temperature increases, in fact your whole system heats up. In order to keep your vital organs cool and functional, your body generates sweat that normally evaporates off your skin and naturally cools you off. By wearing rubberized or other heat-trapping clothes you generate more heat, which in turn generates more sweat. And, on top of that, you even block your body's ability to take advantage of evaporation and cool its core. If sweat is secreted but not evaporated rapidly enough to maintain heat balance, your core temperature increases and your physical exercise performance and health is compromised. In addition, prolonged wetting of the skin surface reduces sweat secretion, which impairs temperature regulation even more.

Although it is true that excessive sweating brings about temporary weight loss, this weight loss is merely due to the loss of water from your cells - not bodyfat ! It causes you to end up dehydrated and ruins your work out. As soon as you drink any liquid to rehydrate yourself, you gain back all the lost water-weight, but you may yet stay in a dehydrated condition for up to 48 hours, because it may take your body's cells that long to recover their previous volume.

It is therefore much more sensible to give your body every opportunity to get a good workout by wearing light and porous clothing which allows air circulation to your skin, especially on the torso, to maximize evaporative cooling. Clothes made from cotton or similar materials are ideal to wear during exercise. Once your clothes have become soaked, exchange them for dry ones as soon as possible, as wet clothes are not only uncomfortable, but the wetted skin can also inhibit sweat secretion. Following this advice you will fulfill one major precondition to get the most out of your workout with regard to increasing your metabolism and getting stronger and leaner.

Christoph Klueppel