Sweat is Sweet!

The sweet thing about working out so hard that you sweat is that you burn extra calories for 14 hours after you exercise!

A research study examined the caloric expenditure of 10 men as they lived inside a metabolic chamber for two days. The first day was a rest day so the participants did very little throughout the day. They did simple things such as eating, sleeping, washing their hands, etc. The second day they did the same thing except they included a 45-minute vigorous bike ride. During the bike ride, the participants burned an average of 519 calories. In addition to those calories, they also burned an average of an additional 190 calories over the next 14.2 hours.

To ensure that your workout rewards you with “extra-calories” burned, be sure to engage in vigorous exercise. If you are exercising at a moderate intensity, you may not see these same results. Vigorous exercise should feel hard, but not to the point of exhaustion. You should be sweating and your heart rate should be elevated.

Examples of vigorous exercise include: jogging, water jogging, clogging, in-line skating, and most competitive sports. Just be sure you don’t counter your sweaty work-out with something sweet like a piece of cake!