The more you sweat during a workout, the more calories you burn, right? Not necessarily. We’ve been led to believe that sweating more means you’re losing more weight or burning extra calories, but that’s a common misconception, according to Casey Lee, trainer, strength and conditioning coach, and owner of Purposeful Strength. While intense workouts can certainly increase calorie burn, sweating itself isn’t a reliable indicator of effort or fat loss.
“Sweating more does not mean you’re burning more calories,” he says. “Sweating is your body’s way of cooling down. Exercise can absolutely increase your body’s core temperature and heat things up—but so can other factors like temperature, exposure to sunlight if exercising outside, your total length of a workout, and absolutely the type of workout.”
Related: 8 Dangerous Strength Myths Peddled by Juiced Lifters You Should Ignore
If you’ve ever taken a hot yoga class, you know it feels much more intense than practicing in a cooler room. However, a 2020 study compared yoga in a hot environment versus at room temperature and found that heart rate and calorie burn were nearly identical, showing that sweating isn’t a reliable indicator of how many calories you burn.
That doesn’t mean sweating isn’t useful, though, it just serves a different purpose. Lee says it helps loosen up his body and improve movement. For others, a sweaty workout can make you feel like you’re pushing harder. But sweat alone isn’t a reliable measure of a “good” workout. Tons of exercise modalities don’t increase core body temperature as much as vigorous aerobic exercise and will likely lead to less sweating, like weightlifting.
“If you’re doing a workout around pure strength training, you may take upwards to two or three minutes of rest between sets. Resting for that length of time is going to keep your body at a relatively stable temperature and sweating will be minimal,” Lee says. “Was it a bad workout? No way, you moved a bunch of weight around! It just wasn’t a full sweat sesh.”
The main takeaway: A “good” workout isn’t defined by how soaked your shirt gets. It’s about the quality of your movements, the effort you put in, and how your body feels afterward.
Related: Sports Scientist Debunks the 2 Most Persistent Weight-Loss Myths
