Sweat and calories

I was talking to someone at the gym awhile ago about maximizing our time in the gym. The conversation got around to taking a spin class. I've taken spin a few times and never really enjoyed it. Although I love riding my bike, I have a tough time just spinning in place. I enjoy the exercise but I always over heat. That has always been one of the problems I have had since high school. My face turns beet red and I look like I am about to pop. I feel fine - just hot. Putting these two thoughts together, I realized that one of the reasons I didn't enjoy spin was that the room was too hot. While talking to a couple of the spin instructors about the need for fans in the room, they mentioned that they had tried that but that the class complained. They wanted it hot. Apparently, they felt that if there wasn't a lake of sweat on the floor at the end of class, they weren't getting a good workout. That is simply false. A lot of sweat simply means that your body is overly hot. You will be able to work harder and therefore burn more calories if you are cooler. That's why most runners prefer to run outside when the temperature is in the 60's and 70's. Just remember that the correlation between the amount of sweat you produce and your caloric expenditure is not direct.