Does Spitting Help You Lose Weight? (Explained and Solved)
June 30, 2022
You may have heard about wrestlers frequently spitting to lose weight, but does it actually work? Will it work for you?
Spitting will not allow you to lose any extra weight that is meaningful or sustainable in any way, because in order to actually burn body fat and keep this weight off for good, we need to create and maintain a calorie deficit.A calorie deficit can not be achieved by spitting.
Losing body fat really comes down to the fundamentals, calories in vs. calories out.
Spitting will not actually help you to lose weight that is going to make any difference. This is because any weight you lose will consist of only fluid loss, not body fat.
When wrestlers or even boxers are trying to cut weight, they are most of the time cutting actual water weight. Spitting is thought to help them achieve this in a quick fashion.
They will spit in a bottle or a jug repeatedly over a short course of time to try to decrease their weight. They do this after sucking on candies such as Jolly Ranchers or sour candies, as the candy will cause them to salivate more.
This is often paired with urination as well, as these are two of the many exits we can expel fluid from our body, which decreases water weight.
This is great for them, because they only might be a few ounces over their weigh in, and need to lose these ounces fast, but these results are short lived.
As soon as you put fluids back into your system by drinking or with food, this weight is going to be gained right back. It is an artificial way to lose weight fast and it is deceiving to the average person.
It is not sustainable and it flat out does not help you lose body fat, which is what you want.
But after all, wrestlers are not looking for sustainable, meaningful weight loss, you are.
Dehydration is not Healthy
When wrestlers or boxers try to make weigh ins, they use spitting and also other means like frequent urination or even running around in trash bags to expel excess fluid in any way they can.
Dehydration can wreak havoc on the body in many ways, including:
Cramping
Headaches
Dizziness
Weakness
Fatigue
Nausea
Acute Kidney Injury
These are just a few of the many ways dehydration can effect you. It is not something to take lightly AT ALL.
Losing body fat should be done in a healthy way that does not sacrifice your health in the process.
How Much Water Weight Can You Lose Spitting?
Taking into consideration how much spitting is done, there is the potential to lose a few ounces up to a few pounds of water weight.
Remember, I emphasize water weight, not fat. By spitting over and over, all you are doing is decreasing your body’s overall fluid volume.
This is not going to make any meaningful impact over the course of time when trying to lose body fat.
In all actuality, it can harm you. Please refrain from doing this.
Does Spitting Help You Lose Fat?
We talked about how spitting may need to a slight decrease in water weight, but can spitting help you lose body fat? The answer is no.
Spitting is not going to assist you in burning body fat, because the necessary requirement for losing body fat is a calorie deficit.
In order to decrease the amount of fat on the body, we must train our body into tapping into that fat storage and using it for fuel. This needs to be done over time.
Spitting is not going to do the trick, because frequently spitting over and over is not going to have any impact on the foods we eat, or the movement we partake in throughout the day to expel energy.
The calories we consume and the energy we expel are the factors that we need to take into consideration and put to work.
Should I Count on Spitting to Lose Weight?
No, you should not count on spitting to lose weight (body fat) because it will not work effectively over the long term, and you can risk doing damage to your body.
Remember, losing weight should always be safe, realistic, and attainable.
Spitting or taking part in any other ways to decrease your fluid volume is eventually going to start causing your body harm. You do not want to cause your body harm.
I am a firm believer in preserving health, and would never recommend something that would put your health in jeopardy.
Not to mention, spitting is just a plain old bad habit. Your mom will yell at you.
Create a Calorie Deficit to Lose Weight Instead
The only way to actually lose body fat and keep it off for good is by creating and maintaining a calorie deficit. This means you need to be consuming less calories than you are burning on a daily basis.
Creating a calorie deficit is easy, and I have a myriad of posts related to a calorie deficit for you to soak up and enjoy. I recommend you start reading some of these posts as they will help guide you.
I promise you, creating a calorie deficit is going to work. I can’t say the same for spitting.
But in short, there are a few easy guidelines for creating a calorie deficit:
Reduce the number of calories you are taking in
This can be done simply by cutting out high calorie foods or eating smaller portions. We need to decrease the amount of calories we consume so we can burn more calories than we take in.
Increase the amount of exercise you do
Exercising will help to burn more calories to count toward your deficit, which means you will actually have a chance of reaching your goal faster.
This does not mean you have to run at 7 MPH on the treadmill, you can simply walk. Any movement will burn calories, but the more strenuous the activity, the more calories will be burned.
Create a combination of both
This is usually the most effective approach, as it will help to stave off any feelings of hunger caused by decreasing calorie intake, and the endorphins released by exercising can improve your mood and make you feel more motivated.
It is important to know that exercising is not required to lose weight in a calorie deficit. It is possible to burn fat in a calorie deficit by just focusing on your calorie intake alone, this is because our bodies burn calories by just keeping us alive.
Calculate Your TDEE First
It is great to know you can lose weight by focusing on your caloric intake alone, and also still eat the foods you enjoy.
This is the reason why it is a great idea to calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) before setting any caloric intake goal for yourself, so you know what your maintenance calories are and how you can stay below them to lose body fat.
For example, if your TDEE amount is calculated at 2,000 calories per day (I’m just estimating), just consuming below this amount (1,500-1,700 calories per day) will cause you to shed body fat over the course of weeks to months.
The TDEE consists of basal metabolic rate (BMR), activity level, and the thermic effect of food.
You can calculate it by clicking here and start to create your own calorie deficit and put it to work.
Remember, this is not a quick fix. Decreasing body fat takes time.
You want to start your deficit and monitor your results and you can expect changes over a few months time. You may need to tweak your calories in amount a bit to start seeing results.
Creating a brand new calorie deficit can be a bit of trial and error at first until you find out what works for you and your body.
In Summary
We learned that spitting is not going to help you lose weight, because when we lose weight, what we really want to do is decrease body fat. Spitting is in no way related to losing body fat.
Losing weight can only be done by creating a calorie deficit, and this is not going to be bolstered in any way by spitting.
In fact, frequent spitting can even cause dehydration, which can lead to a whole host of other problems.
So the next time you think about spitting to lose weight, just remember, it’s not going to do what you want it to. Actually? It’s just plain gross.
