Dumb Questions....??

OK -- so probably a really dumb question... But tonight I worked out really hard and did so with more layers on so that I would sweat more. Does this make me burn more calories?

The reason I ask is that I had a boyfriend in highschool (a million years ago in the Jurassic age!) who was on the wrestling team. He would wear a thermal suit to "make weight" -- meaning to sweat as much as possible during his 5 mile runs so that he would burn those extra pounds off.

So.... will the same principle work for me/us?? If we wear more to sweat more when we work out, will we actually burn more calories??

Thanks! :)

I think you are just losing water weight.

One big glass of water and the weight is right back on you.

I could be wrong, but when wrestlers wear thermal suits they are trying to shed water weight. This is a quick fix to be able to wrestle in a lower weight class. However, I seems reasonable that if your body teperature is higher you will burn more calories.

Well, I think that if you're working hard enough to sweat, that's likely a good thing. 

Actually I think that if your body temp is cold that you burn more calories... shivering to keep warm, but to cool the body you sweat... which doesn't burn calories.

There is no such thing as a dumb question. Or at least thats what our teachers tell us. I personally think there are some dumb questions. Your question, however, is not dumb. Sweat is liquid so weight that you sweat off is water weight. Or so I've been told.  You might burn a few more calories though because its a little harder to move when you are wearing lots of layers.

Original Post by trayceebee:

Actually I think that if your body temp is cold that you burn more calories... shivering to keep warm, but to cool the body you sweat... which doesn't burn calories.

 This is not true, we burn more calories both when we are too cold and when we are too warm. When we are too warm our metabolisms increase: our hearts beat faster to more quickly move blood to the surface, our blood vessels dilate, and we sweat. It definitely burns calories. In physiology lab we actually measured the metabolic rates of mice in warm and cold conditions and any time the temperature was out of the normal comfort zone, metabolic rate went UP.

I think in general it is not a great idea to deliberately make yourself too warm while exercising because it is easy to overheat, but in theory it should burn a few more calories if it doesn't kill you.  It probably wouldn't be any significant amount though since our bodies are pretty efficient with the whole temperature regulation thing. As soon as we are actually burning more calories, we are also feeling pretty uncomfortable since our bodies HATE burning calories (as we all know so well!). The discomfort usually makes us put on a sweater/take off a sweater/jump in a lake or whatever it takes to make the discomfort go away.

The reason wrestlers do that is to lose water weight for their weight in. Normally they do it a couple hours before they have to make weight. Once they make weight before a match then they rehydrate and effective gain all the weight back by simply replenishing the water they sweated off. It's not really a viable method to lose weight for the long haul.

I would suggest working hard in a way that's still comfortable and enjoyable. I'm someone that sweats buckets no matter what when I'm working out, so I can't imagine working out in a sweatsuit with a hood up over my head. But that's just me...

yeah you lost water weight... the fighters I know do this for weeks before a fight and look SICK and feel SICK! strongly recommend not do it :)

The things wrestlers do to make weight make me want to cry remembering what I had to see.  Hockey and wrestling shared work out space (other then me changing in the female lockers they didn't make any changes....only girl on the team so I was "one of the guys") and for some odd reason most of us shared the same lunch period.  You'd see the hockey team packing on the burgers away, and the wrestlers eating an apple...or celery and carrot sticks. 

If I had to drop 3# before something to fit a dress because I gained, I might try a suit if normal workout wasn't doing it.  But for long term, no way. 

What a great discussion! Thanks, everyone! Any more "dumb" questions out there?

Here's another one just to try to keep it going... Can exercise alone reduce that awful, pesky cellulite?

Those "body wrap" companies offer cellulite reduction by wrapping you up tightly like a mummy with some sort of "herbal detox" solution. Then you get on an elliptical machine or some other apparatus to keep your circulation flowing and to "enhance" the detox.

I did this once, and first let me say that I'm still dubious about the ersatz "detox" solution, and I believe they put you on the apparatus more for circulation than anything else. That said, I did see two effects that lasted for a couple of weeks: 1) I did lose inches -- about 1/2 inch everywhere (arms, legs, belly, hips, knees -- everywhere) which is about 1/2 dress size. 2) I did see a reduction in cellulite.

Now, they claim that the results are due to the detox + the compression. So, being dubious about the detox element, I wonder if the compression actually makes a difference, and therefore how can we achieve this result at home?

Again, I did this before a big date, and I did see results that lasted almost two weeks. Of course...then it was Thanksgiving, and I just ate myself silly from that point through the holidays...

Has anyone else tried this--willing to admit it???

Any wisdom out there about compression???