Sweating can sometimes make a difference to the pounds on your scale, but this apparent weight loss is short-lived. Any weight loss from sweat is likely linked to water weight. Heavy periods of perspiration can greatly deplete the fluid levels in your body, which may make it appear that you've lost weight. But to truly shed excess pounds, you need to burn fat. Sweating doesn't do this.
Perspiration
Sweating is your body's way of regulating your internal temperature. Whenever your body temperature rises, it triggers your sweat glands to secrete fluid onto the surface of your skin. As this fluid evaporates, it cools the body. It doesn't burn fat. Prolonged periods of perspiration, however, may result in a slight amount of weight loss. But as soon as you replenish the fluids lost through your sweat, you're going to regain the weight.
Physical Activity
If you're sweating as a result of physical activity, you're also burning calories, which can aid in weight loss. But the perspiration isn't the cause of the caloric burn. It's the activity and the intensity of this activity that burns the calories. How much you sweat during a given activity doesn't have any bearing on energy expenditure. Some people sweat more due to poor conditioning, while others sweat more from their choice in exercise apparel. Even ambient temperature dictates perspiration rate. It's for these reasons that sweat isn't a good indicator of energy expenditure. For you to lose any amount of weight, you must generate what's known as a caloric deficit. Sweating itself can't cause a deficit in calories.
Caloric Deficit
You need to accumulate a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb. of fat, according to the National Institutes of Health. Exercise can help facilitate this. When you exercise, you expend more energy, which causes the body to burn calories. If you're burning 500 more calories than what you're currently taking in through diet each day, you should see a pound less on the scale each week.
Diet
To ensure you're meeting your weight-loss goals, consider making some dietary changes as well. Exercise is essential to weight loss and weight control, but a calorie-controlled diet is by far the most effective option, according to Dr. Donald Hensrud, a preventive medicine specialist with the Mayo Clinic. Instead of focusing on how much you sweat during a given physical activity, cut calories from your diet to help reach the caloric deficit needed to lose the excess pounds.
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