I’m a 24 year old guy and for as long as i can recall i have suffered from excessive sweating. I am overweight, i currently weigh just under 18 stones (down from 20.5 back in August, so i am losing weight) and i’m about average height. In the middle of winter if i walk at a brisk pace for 10 minutes wearing just a shirt and a coat (not fastened) by the time i stop my back and forehead will be soaked in sweat (so much i can only wear dark clothing to hide the sweat patches). In summer this is an absolute nightmare as you can imagine. Does anyone know what (apart from the weight which i am working on) may be causing this and what i can do about it? I’ve tried antiperspirant but it just turns into wet sludge after 5 minutes. The only thing i’ve noticed that stops the sweat is alchohol. If i go out for the night i can walk home without sweating at all for some reason.
I don’t think it’s a nervous problem, it just seems to occur after (very light) excersize. Can anyone give me any advice?
Speaking in general only, a lot of overweight people find that the combination of weight reduction and regular exercise really cuts down on sweating. The exact mechanism is unknown, but it seems that becoming more aerobically fit, even when still carrying extra poundage, makes a difference.
This usually requires about 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on a daily basis. Non-exercise related sweating often declines by over 90%.
But check with your own doctor first to ensure that there’s no metabolic problem causing the sweating, and to ensure you’re able to tolerate exercise.
I used to have this problem a lot during my irresolute younger days—I would pour sweat from my armpits without any previous exertion. It was always the result of burning the candle at both ends until there was nothing left to burn—i.e., going for weeks on end consuming nothing but beer, cigarettes, and junk food. As soon as I cleaned up my act, the sweating would stop. If I relapsed back to my old behavior patterns, the sweating came back.
I too find that I sweat more when I’m eating a lot of junk. If I eat three good meals with little snacking, I sweat a lot less, even in South Carolina summers. (Three meals is a real rarity for me, though.) Vegetables and meat and actual food items like that instead of, say, Coke and potato chips. I don’t sweat abnormally much anyway, but I’ve noticed that decent diet does have something to do with it.
I hadn’t realized it before you said that, but I sweat less when I drink too. Maybe my body smells beer and realizes I’m going to be peeing like an elderly daschund for the rest of the night so it had better conserve fluids.
Some antidepressants, and presumably some other drugs too, can cause excessive sweating. So it’d be worth checking the side-effects of anything you might be on. 'Cos maybe you could switch drugs.