Sweat is not fat crying, it is your muscles and organs crying.

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

Just as it would be inappropriate to gauge a therapy session on how much you've cried, the same rule applies to sweat and working out. Some people react to stimuli by sweating, some people sweat regardless. Some can get their heat rates up without sweating, while others will sweat profusely no matter the ease of the activity. It would be irrational to assume someone who is always crying to be emotionally healthy, just as it would be to assume someone who is always sweating is physically fit. (In fact, excessive sweating can be a sign of health issues.)

Fool's Gold: Obvious Choices Can Lead to Uneducated Decisions

Sweat is one of many reactions the body will go through, but the reaction that is most important is that of adaptation. We rely on sweat because it's obvious. You can see it, smell it, feel it, and sometimes you can hear it dripping onto the floor—physical fool's gold. What you cannot see with the naked eye, initially, is whether sweat made your body any better.

The Common Approach Is Literally Stupid

Your brain is made of fat and water, and it needs both to rebuild and work properly. But the common approach to exercise is to reduce fat and sweat to reduce water weight. There is truth to the stereotype of dumb exercisers, because depleting your brain of fat and water can only make the brain dumber. This is not a judgment but a scientific truth.

Equal Parts Science, Trust, Tracking, and Patience

Like any investment, the productivity of a workout is difficult to gauge in real time. You must trust the process. Base your workouts around science, then trust the science over sweat, vomit, and tears. Keep track of your workouts and log your progress to see what the data shows. Rely on the evidence before you.

Track for the Body:

Total fat percentage

Visceral fat (fat around the organs)

Hip to waist ratio

Body Mass Index (BMI)

Waist to height ratio

Skeletal muscle percentage

Log all meals

Log quality and quantity of sleep

Stress (rating your stress from 1 to 5 every day)

Weight

Two-week running weight average

Track for the Workouts:

Number of workouts a week

Types of workouts (what exactly you did and any progress change)

Protocols (for instance are you following: high intensity training, German volume training, 5x5, CrossFit WOD, etc.)

Duration (how long your workout lasted)

A holistic approach to data: seeing the relationships between all the variables. What's important is using this information to calculate the optimal effective dosage of workouts. Improvements take time, have enough information to calculate a two-week running average, as what you do or eat now will actually show up two weeks from now.

If you act harmfully, but you do not see the effect of your behavior instantly, you may continue the harmful action. However, adverse outcomes may take time to appear. Inversely, if you act healthfully but prematurely stop when there is no immediate results, you will rob yourself of future benefits. (It's the same as someone who removes money from a savings account because they don't realize it takes 30 days for interest to accumulate and pay out.) Sweat fosters instant gratification, which is why it's misleading.

Being upset that an acorn didn't turn into a mighty oak tree overnight may cause you to uproot that acorn and try something else. In the future, will you associate the lack of trees with your past actions? If you only pay attention to those instant reactions, like sweat, you might not. You might end up in a state of confusion and limbo, losing weight and getting fit for brief periods accidentally, never knowing what triggered those adaptations. An oak tree is merely a steadfast acorn.

Sweat Obsession Can Create an Unhealthy Mindset