In partnership with The Fresh Toast

Yeah, we all sweat more when it’s hot outside. But did you know we also burn more calories compared to colder months? Here’s why.

Some of us welcome the colder months with open arms, knowing that our bodies burn more calories during the winter to stay warm. But now we know that it’s kind of the same thing during the hotter months.

Thanks to Best Life, which dug up an old 2010 Spanish study, we know that it’s not our imagination that way more sweat pours off us when we exert ourselves during the summer. The study, published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, found that cyclists who exercised in 104-degree weather burned more fat and increased more muscle than those who did the same exercise at the same intensity at 68 degrees. You don’t say?

Best Life explains why:

“Given that exercise already makes your body temperature rise, your body also burns more calories as it tries to cool your body temperature in extreme heat, a process known as thermoregulation. A person’s average body temperature is between 98°F and 100°F, which is a pretty narrow window. If it falls any lower than 95°F, you could suffer from hypothermia. If it gets any higher than 107.6°F, you could get brain damage or even die. So when you raise your body temperature in extreme heat, your body needs to work harder to achieve homeostasis.”

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And of course, if you don’t stay hydrated, over exerting yourself in the heat can be dangerous to your help, causing dizziness, nausea and even fainting. So if you do decide to sweat it out in the summer heat, make sure to take care of yourself. You may want to look killer in a bikini, but your body just wants to be healthy.

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