Women sweat differently than men

[ny biker]

Thanks to TE for pointing this out on twitter and facebook...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/1...ntly-than-men/

[Biciclista]

yeah great article, I read it. When i was not fit at all i hardly sweat! things HAVE changed.

[malkin]

Whatever happened to the good old days of horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow?


I never did understand that glow thing.

[OakLeaf]

I glow buckets.

[bmccasland]

I glow like a horse.

[emily_in_nc]

I was really glad to read this as I had noticed that when I run on the treadmill and see other women on treadmills around me, I sweat WAY more than they do. I drip, my hair gets soaked in back. Same when I do my weekly MTB ride with a work friend. She glows, I SWEAT.

Now I know it's just because I'm fit.

[zoom-zoom]

I was really glad to read this as I had noticed that when I run on the treadmill and see other women on treadmills around me, I sweat WAY more than they do. I drip, my hair gets soaked in back. Same when I do my weekly MTB ride with a work friend. She glows, I SWEAT.

Now I know it's just because I'm fit.

It's shocking how soaked I get. When I run on a TM the sweat just flies in all directions. I definitely out-sweat my hubby.

[KnottedYet]

Ah-HAH! I'm not a sweaty beast, I'm just more efficient at regulating my core temperature!

[colby]

Even if it's bunk, for a few minutes it made me feel better about day to day operations. As soon as my body temperature or workload gets anywhere near warm, I start sweating. I sweat sitting in my office if the temperature gets warm or I get into a (literally) heated discussion. Even if it doesn't get what you'd consider warm, I just sweat. All those TV commercials about sweaty pits make me self-conscious, I admit it. Now I'll just imagine to myself "it's the curse of being fit."

I see people at the gym who don't sweat, too, especially those tiny women who look small but not really muscular or "fit." I figure they aren't working hard enough. Maybe they aren't working hard enough often enough. Maybe I just want to hate them because they are small.

[KnottedYet]

Well, surface area is an X2 function, and volume is an X3 function... so maybe it's just that those small volume chickies have relatively larger surface areas, so don't need to sweat as much to dump excess heat?

Or maybe they're just wimps...

(I'll tell you which theory *I* like better. <snort>)

[malkin]

Wimps with a large surface to mass ratio.

[Crankin]

Well, I am a small woman who sweats buckets. I mean, buckets. I have a hard time regulating my temperature in cold weather riding; I often end up feeling too hot, because I am afraid of feeling too cold! But, I am getting better. It just means that a few pieces of cycling wear that I bought years ago are really too heavy for me to wear as a mid layer. I'll end up wearing them x country skiing at really low temps, though.

[shootingstar]

Well, surface area is an X2 function, and volume is an X3 function... so maybe it's just that those small volume chickies have relatively larger surface areas, so don't need to sweat as much to dump excess heat?

Or maybe they're just wimps...

(I'll tell you which theory *I* like better. <snort>)

I know I don't sweat as much as a sister of mine who is just 1-2 inches taller than and heavier only by 5 lbs. or so. She jogs regularily.

Not sure if it's worth anlayzing my level of fitness according to amount of sweat. I just get pissed off, destroying several good tops with stained pits.

[jessmarimba]

I sweat like crazy if I'm exercising, but otherwise it takes a migraine for me to feel too hot.

[Vanilla]

I was interested in the reader's comment about the possibility of men and women sweating from different parts of the body. I've noticed that the men in my gym sweat a lot down their backs but I tend to sweat from my head and chest. Perhaps it's all due to me having a thick fringe and large chest an nothing more. Who knows?

Interesting article though.