Does sweating during strength training burn fat?

The answer is really not. There is never a causal relationship between sweating and fat burning, not even a strong correlation. During the two summers when I first started practicing strength training, I loved to save wet T-shirts. Every time after training, I would take a photo of my shirt with half a puddle of water on it and post it on social media. I felt that I had burned at least half a kilogram of fat that day. As a result, I weighed myself 2 kilograms lighter before going to bed than in the morning. I drank two cups of black coffee and a bottle of mineral water the next day, and the weight came back right away. Only later did I realize that all the fat I lost was water, not even half a kilogram of fat.

Sweating is essentially the body's temperature regulation mechanism. If your body produces too much heat and the outside temperature is high, it will remove heat through perspiration and cool down. It has nothing to do with whether you are using sugar or fat for energy. Of course, there are experienced fitness professionals who will tell you, "The day I sweat more means I will consume more energy that day." This is actually not wrong, but the order is reversed - your training intensity is enough, and your muscles continue to work and produce more heat, so you sweat more. At the same time, sufficient training intensity will increase the overall caloric consumption and drive fat to participate in energy supply. Both are the results of high-intensity training. Just like when you drive fast, the engine will be hot and consume more fuel. You can't say that the heat is the cause of fuel consumption, right?

I squatted in a gym with a constant temperature of 22 degrees last week. In the last set, I couldn’t even hold the barbell rack. My heart rate peaked over 170, and my back became a little damp after the whole training. The caloric consumption measured by my watch was 420 kcal. Compared with the time last month when I practiced slowly on my shoulders for 40 minutes at 30 degrees in the summer, and sweat dripped down my chin, my consumption was nearly 100 kcal higher. Not to mention those who are born with well-developed sweat glands. I have a brother at the gym who practices for 10 minutes and then takes 20 minutes to watch short videos. His back is still soaked. That kind of consumption is really not as good as others who practice glute bridge seriously for 20 minutes.

There are also people who deliberately wear sweat suits to cover their sweat, saying that "sweating doubles the fat you burn in an hour." This is purely IQ tax. The sweat you cover up is all the water your body is forced to excrete. Not only will it not burn an extra half gram of fat, but it may also lead to electrolyte imbalance due to excessive dehydration. I have seen two people get dizzy in the middle of the exercise. Of course, you don’t need to completely regard sweating as a useless signal. In the same training and the same environment, if you sweat more than usual, it most likely means that you are in good condition today and did not paddle during training, and your fat-burning efficiency is not much lower. Just don’t regard this as the only criterion. If you really want to calculate consumption, it is better to look at your heart rate and the quality of the movement, which is much more reliable than touching your back to see if it is wet.