Why Sweating a Ton Doesn’t Mean You Got a Good Workout

Let me introduce you to your good friend, sweat. Ignore the gross feel and the potential for B.O. for the moment, and think about what it does for you: When your body gets too hot, threatening to raise your core temperature over what’s healthy, little glands in your skin squeeze drops of moisture onto its surface. As soon as a breeze hits those droplets, they evaporate, taking some of your body heat away with them.

This is true even during exercise. It’s not the exercise that makes you sweat; exercise just raises your body heat, and it’s the heat that makes you sweat. That’s why you sweat without exercising on a hot day, and why you can sometimes exercise without sweating in a cold environment. In other words, sweat means a lot less than you might think. Sweating doesn’t mean you’re getting a good workout, doesn’t mean you’re losing weight,

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