Sweating

[PaulSecteur]

Hi,

I have been using a jacket thats wind and waterproof, but not breathable. I brought it before I had the bike.

So, now when Im out in decent-ish weather putting a bit of effort in I sweat a lot, as in when I stop I can shake my sleeves and a fair ammount of sweat drips out (Yeah, gross I know).

My question is... Is sweating alot healthy? I keep well hydrated so Im wondering if sweating alot will either help me loose fat, or if I will burn more calories because my body is using energy trying to keep itself cool?

 

[ColinJ]

You'll be losing weight because you are burning your energy stores. That's what makes you hot and that's why you sweat. Sweating may cool you down but it presumably doesn't cost the body much energy to effectively allow water to leak out of you and evaporate.

I have sweated/peed out over 8 litres on one long hot summer ride. You can work out how much water you've lost by weighing yourself before and after a ride. Try and allow for the weight of any food that you've eaten. If you drank 4 litres and came back 4 kg lighter then you must have actually sweated/peed 8 litres since water weighs 1 kg/litre.

Ideally your weight wouldn't be that far down on one ride, but it can be hard to drink enough to replace all losses.

I've done enough long rides now to know that I would normally come back from a hard hilly century ride about 3 kg down, but about 2.5 kg would go back on over the following 24 hours as I rehydrated. I actually burn about 500 grams of fat per hilly century (100 miles) or about 625 grams per hilly '200' (km).

PS One thing - you lose a lot of salt in sweat. I have come back from long rides absolutely caked in it. If you drink huge amounts of water without replacing that salt, you can suffer from hyponatraemia.

 

[bikermaze]

Sweating a lot is normal. I usually just drink water but just enough to quench my thirst and replenish the water I lost.

 

[mr Mag00]

i sweat thinking about exercise, lol. but its all good i hydrate too, but Colinj point is important about replacing salts and not just drinking plain water, even squash can be useful to avoid hyponatraemia

 

[Globalti]

My cycling buddy is a gastroenterologist and he tells me that professional cyclists are now doing a bowel washout before competitions and then riding dry (not drinking) to keep their weight down. Mad, eh?