Sweating depletes water from your body and causes temporary weight loss. By increasing how much you sweat, you can often lose more weight in an exercise session. Wearing rubber or plastic suits is one controversial way to increase sweating, but these suits are dangerous, and you might lose more than weight.
Why We Sweat
Sweating plays an important role in regulating your body temperature. According to the National Institute on Aging, your body is always working to balance the amount of heat loss with the heat produced. When you produce too much heat, you sweat. The evaporation of this sweat lowers your body temperature. Anything that inhibits the evaporation of sweat, such as a rubber suit, decreases your body's ability to cool itself. Being too hot for too long can bring on a dangerous condition called hyperthermia.
Heat Stroke
Heat stroke is a hyperthermic condition. The Mayo Clinic defines heat stroke as a "life threatening condition" brought on by a body temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Wearing excess clothing that inhibits sweat evaporation is one way to get heat stroke, Mayo says. Rubber suits do not allow sweat to evaporate easily.
No Aid to Weight Loss
"Never wear rubberized or plastic suits," the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says in its publication "Your Guide to Physical Activity and Your Heart." Such clothing will not help you lose weight, but it could bring on "dangerously high body temperatures."
Consequences
The consequences of wearing a rubber suit while exercising can be tragic. Mike Viscardi of Vanderbilt University describes the 1997 death of a 21-year-old wrestler at the University of Michigan who wore a rubber suit during intense exercise. Trying to lose 17 lbs. to reach his weight class, Jeff Reese went through a two-hour workout in a 92-degree room while wearing a rubber suit. He died of rhabdomyolosis, a cellular breakdown of skeletal muscle. This, combined with dehydration, caused his kidneys to fail and heart to malfunction.
Be Smart
To help prevent heat stroke, the Mayo Clinic recommends wearing lightweight clothing that allows for the evaporation of sweat. Rubber suits don't fit in that category. The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Federation for High School Sports have both outlawed the use of rubber suits by athletes.
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