ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information regarding the evolution of the studies that compared obese and non-obese individuals from thermoregulatory and sweating outcomes. It discusses intrinsic and extrinsic factors that could explain different responses in obese individuals. The chapter presents some recommendations since professionals and athletes should be aware of how much obesity could impair their thermoregulatory and body fluid responses to exercise. A challenge for future studies is to evaluate skin blood flow during the exercise protocol in order to clarify whether it is slower in overweighed/obese individuals and therefore one possible mechanism that could impair central heat transfer to periphery. Initial factors to explain thermoregulatory disadvantages of obese individuals while exercising in the heat were those related to their condition of having a greater amount of adipose tissue and the geometric concern related to their ratio of body surface area to body mass.
