Larger People Sweat More, Even If They Are Not Fat.

Overweight people seem to sweat more than slender athletes, but not only because of body fat. New research explains why weight loss may not affect sweating as much as you might think.

The amount of sweat depends on how much heat your body generates, because sweat helps you cool down. Body size is important because the larger you are, the more work you do and therefore the more heat you generate. Until recently, it was hypothesized that body fat insulates you by keeping you warm. But according to a studypublished in the Journal of Applied Physiology , fat accounts for only 1.3% of the variation in people’s sweat rate.

This means that if you lose fat but gain muscle while remaining about the same size, your sweating rate will not be greatly affected. If you do lose a lot of fat without replacing it, you will end up sweating less – because you are smaller and have less weight to carry.

What determines how much you sweat? | World of runners

Photo of Kullez .

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