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Is it true that i should wear thick clothes such as a hoody while doing cardio to sweat more? Or is it just water weight that gets put back on when you drink? I have heard both.

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7  
If sweating made you thin, the American South would not have an obesity epidemic. – wdypdx22 Mar 11 '11 at 19:16
I wear a trash bag on my torso then a shirt over that and then a hoodie with a beanie. I get a good sweat going. Does it help? I don't know. I do see significant drops on the scale (obviously due to water loss) but it's temporary. However, sweating is good for your body to get rid of toxins. It makes me feel better so I do it. One would think since most suppliments use caffine to increase body temperature to burn fat it would make sense that wearing clothes would have the same affect. – DustinDavis Mar 11 '11 at 22:48
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Definitely only losing water weight. The other problem is, because your body can't wick away heat through sweat you're also at a higher risk of heat exhaustion from working out. – Evan Plaice Mar 20 '11 at 20:10

4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

It will make you sweat more. Sweating more means you will need to drink more. It doesn't help you lose fat faster, if that is what you're asking.

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people say your heartrate increases as you sweat, and so you lose weight faster. – user358 Mar 10 '11 at 19:29
@fullyinsance: That seems to be assuming that your heart is what is burning most of the calories. But that is an incorrect assumption. You're legs are burning most of the calories (assuming your running or something). – David Oneill Mar 10 '11 at 19:32
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If you heart rate does increase as you sweat, and the hoodie does make you sweat more, your heart rate would increase by wearing a hoodie. However, you state that you want to lose fat, so now it depends what your rate is at before you put on the hoodie. If you heart rate is under 55% of your MHR, you may consider putting the hoodie on, because you would get closer to the ideal fat burning zone. However, if your heart rate is already above 60% of your MHR, you would not want to put on the hoodie, as you would get further away from the fat burning zone. – Andrew Ferk Mar 10 '11 at 19:58
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@Andrew: the whole point of the % of MHR is to work at a specific level. If you are working at less than 55% of your MHR, you should work harder, not put on a hoodie. – David Oneill Mar 11 '11 at 14:02
up vote 3 down vote

If pure weight loss is what youre after ( and I mean just kg/pounds, not fat loss), then that extra hoodie could help you.

Amy Nutt makes a great point about heat and weightloss. Sweating helps body get rid of the salts. And as we know, salt, besides making our food taste different, has the side effect of lessening the water throughput of your body. In other words, it keeps the water inside the body, therefore increasing, or certainly not lessening, your bodyweight.

And if we assume, that you are on a good diet, there should be quite a small intake of salt, so there will be initial gains, but not in the long run. It may help you loose those first couple of kg/lbs that people are so ecstatic about, but will not help your weight loss in the long run.

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i do want to lose fat. – user358 Mar 10 '11 at 19:36
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@fullyinsane Then that extra hoodie will do you no good. – Janis Peisenieks Mar 10 '11 at 19:37
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I love how you said ...making our food taste 'different' instead of 'better' lol. Perfect. – DustinDavis Mar 11 '11 at 22:43
up vote 2 down vote

I have seem bodybuilder wearing loads of cloth for their cardio workout just before a competition. They do it to minimize the water body which will in a lean and trained body cause the muscles to appear more defined.

This, however, is not healthy. Your body regulates the temperature by sweat that evaporates from your skin and cools the body down (You can cool down a drink in summer by wrapping it in a wet newspaper and put it in the sun - same effect).

Sweating more will do not do anything because your body will just be carving for more water after your workout. So wear whatever you are comfortable with.

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They do it before competition to 1) Drop weight quick for weigh ins (in applicable sports) and 2) for body builder competitions - help remove water from the skin (in addition to taking diuretics) so their skin looks very thin and you can see all of their cuts. – DustinDavis Mar 11 '11 at 22:45
up vote 0 down vote

Sweating is one of many body responses to higher temperature, and begins when other responses are working to maximum efficiency, such as vasodilation (dilation of capillaries close to skin) and the increase in heart rate, both working to cool the body.

An increase in cellular respiration performed by the body's cells, is needed to fuel these systems, and the hotter the body is the more the body must work to maintain a satisfactory temperature. Obviously there are many more factors to consider when exercising such as water intake and the types of exercise being performed, but if applied appropriately, wearing thick clothes during cardio WILL provide better weight loss results.

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