Clothes that Burn Calories?

Some companies that sell exercise clothes make a lot of claims about the abilities of these clothes nowadays. According to ads, these clothes soak up sweat, keep you cool, improve your body’s functioning, and now, help you burn more calories.  With all these "specialized" clothes, shopping for exercise clothes can be overwhelming and confusing.

Not only are many of these claims unproven, but not all of the “perks” advertised by these companies are actually desirable for exercise clothes (or even good for you). If you are considering purchasing one or more of these types of special exercise clothes, make sure you research how the clothes go about achieving their claim-to-fame (if they do). Some clothes actually end up interfering with your body’s natural cooling processes, which can put you at risk of overheating while exercising.


For example, current advertisements claim that a specific exercise shirt helps you burn more calories than you would burn while exercising in any other clothing. However, this shirt actually traps your body heat, raising your core temperature, which increases your sweat rate. By raising your temperature and sweat rate, the shirt makes your body work harder to function properly during exercise and that’s what leads to burning the extra calories. It’s important to point out that the thinking behind this shirt is essentially the same as the idea behind the rubber workout suits that have been outlawed by practically all state high school athletic associations because too many people (typically wrestlers) were dying from using them in an attempt to lose weight quickly.

Elevating your body heat and not allowing your body cool properly (through sweating in an environment that will allow your sweat to evaporate) can cause your core temperature to increase to dangerous levels. Despite being inside an air conditioned building, exercising with these types of clothes on can actually lead to the same system failures that happen to athletes suffering from heat illness, which is a medical emergency and can be fatal if not treated quickly enough*. So, maybe it’s a good thing that this shirt isn’t especially good at what it claims to do.

When researchers at Good Housekeeping tested the effectiveness of this shirt, their group of exercisers burned, on average, a measly 8 calories more than they did while wearing a regular workout shirt. That’s about the same number of calories as 2 pieces of gum. Additionally, as you might expect, the exercisers reported feeling uncomfortably hot and sweaty while wearing the shirts and exercising. Feeling really hot and extra sweaty will tend to make most average gym-goers cut their workout short because the workout is no longer enjoyable. So, this type of special exercise clothing may actually shorten the exercise it intends to augment.

Be certain to do your research before purchasing clothes that claim to supplement your body’s functioning during exercise. Not all clothes actually do what they claim to do (some moisture-wicking clothes actually repel water in third-party tests!) and others accomplish their goals by putting your body at risk through overheating or dehydration. Remember, it’s hard to beat gym shorts and a t-shirt for your exercise clothes.



*In order for this to happen, you would have to be exercising at a very high level of intensity for an extended period and push through a great deal of warning signs your body sends you (like cramps, nausea, dizziness, and confusion) before collapsing, but trapping your body heat while exercising simply because you’re trying to burn more calories still isn’t a good idea.