Do You Sweat More Than Normal?

Sure, it's the season of sweat. But are sweatier than the girl next to you?

"They" say girls don't sweat, but mist. "They" lie.

Each and every hour, the average girl sweats five ounces—enough to fill a wine glass, says Michael Shapiro, M.D., medical director of Vanguard Dermatology in New York. And that’s before you factor in scorching temps, stress, and killer workouts.

That's pretty darn sweaty—and chances are you sweat even more than the average lass. Why? One study published in Experimental Physiology found that fit women sweat much more than their unfit counterparts. And despite the pit stains, that's actually a great thing.

The sweat-fitness connection: During exercise, your body adapts to sweat both at a lower internal body temperature as well as at a higher rate. Basically, your body learns it's going to work hard on the regular, so it ups its sweating game to keep you cool—and prevent heat exhaustion—during upcoming physical demands.

According to some researchers, that might be why women still sweat less than men (four times less, on average, according to Shapiro). Just think: Women of our hunter-gatherer ancestry didn’t have to do nearly as much physical labor as their male counterparts did.

But while sweat is any fitness-lover's friend, you can sweat too much—and about one to three percent of all women do, says Shapiro. Hyperhidrosis (layman's term for excessive sweating), can not only be embarrassing and annoying, but if really severe, it could lead to dehydration and off-kilter electrolyte levels. If you feel like you're sweating more than you used to, you perspire when you're neither warm nor stressed (all over or even just on one spot of your body), or you suffer from night sweats, see your doctor to find out if you might have the condition.