Why Does My Stomach Feel Cold When I Run?
Health ConditionsSkin Conditions

Why Does My Stomach Feel Cold When I Run?

Why Does My Stomach Feel Cold When I Run?
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Updated on July 31, 2025
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During exercise, different parts of your body work more than others. They may feel like they’re at different temperatures, depending on their level of activity. This could explain why some people experience the sensation of a cold stomach when running.

Here’s why this might be happening on your run.

Heat Moves Away From Your Core During Exercise

Your muscles are hard at work during exercise — some more than others, depending on the workout.

Even though runners know a strong core is important for posture, your core isn't working as hard as some of your other large muscle groups, such as your quads. Muscles produce significant amounts of heat when they contract, and heat transfers from the muscles to the skin during exercise through a process called convection. This helps them to cool down and avoid overheating.

Luke Belval, PhD, CSCS, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, notes that muscles generate heat during exercise. If your stomach feels cold after exercise, an explanation could be that the muscles are cooler because they’ve been less active.

“Comparatively, your torso is not generating as much heat during exercise,” Belval explains. “One of the functions of the increased blood flow is to carry heat away from the muscles to the skin, where it can release into the environment. Your legs could feel warmer because the muscles are likely warmer.”

Your muscles require increased blood flow during exercise to get the oxygen they need. To meet this requirement, blood vessels supplying more active muscles dilate, and blood reroutes to the muscles in use during exercise to provide the necessary oxygen.

 Specific to the torso, Belval notes that blood also diverts to the more active muscles from organs, including the kidneys, stomach, and liver.

How You Train Affects How Your Body Controls Temperature

The way you exercise might also influence your experience of temperature during exercise. For example, your brain may force you to slow your running pace to prevent overheating when you’re training too hard in a hot, humid environment.

Exercising in the heat puts additional stress on the body, and your natural cooling system can struggle to regulate in high humidity and air temperature.

However, one study found that faster runners may experience lower skin temperatures because their increased running pace can result in higher wind speeds. This reduced temperature at increased speed also related to their advanced training and experience level.

Torso Sweat Can Make Your Stomach Skin Feel Cold

Sweat and evaporation can also factor into a runner’s experience of different temperature sensations on the skin. When your sweat evaporates, it cools your body.

 Belval notes that there is a complex interaction between how we sense temperature and wetness.

“Your torso is a large surface area for this sweat to evaporate and cool,” Belval says.“If that sweat was trapped under a shirt, you may be confusing the perception of wetness with cold, whereas the sweat has evaporated on the skin where clothing wasn’t covering.”

You Might Just Be Sensitive to Cold

No research specifically focuses on the sensation of a cold stomach during or after exercise. However, Belval acknowledges that it’s normal to experience and doesn’t mean anything is wrong.

Science doesn’t definitively pinpoint exactly why you may experience a cold stomach during exercise. However, Belval proposes that it involves a combination of factors. Understanding how the body reacts to exercise, how sweat regulates temperature, and the simple fact that everyone experiences sensations of hot and cold differently may lead to a possible explanation.

Paying closer attention to additional factors, such as the weather, your clothing, the amount you sweat, and whether or not you are sensitive to cold, may help you identify elements that are specific to your personal temperature sensation and experience.

The Takeaway

  • If you notice that your stomach feels cold while running, it’s often due to heat-transfer processes that move warmth away from less active core areas to the large muscles you use during running.
  • These large muscles then release heat to the skin, meaning that your legs may feel warmer than your torso while running.
  • Varying factors, such as workout intensity, environmental temperature, and individual sensitivity to cold, can also impact how different parts of your body feel during and after exercise.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Racinais S et al. IOC Consensus Statement on Recommendations and Regulations for Sport Events in the Heat. British Journal of Sports Medicine. January 2023.
  2. Ramanlal R et al. Physiology, Vasodilation. StatPearls. January 23, 2023.
  3. Lim CL et al. Fundamental Concepts of Human Thermoregulation and Adaptation to Heat: A Review in the Context of Global Warming. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. October 24, 2020.
  4. Weiss C. Mayo Clinic Q and A: Safety Tips for Hot Weather Exercise. Mayo Clinic. July 10, 2020.
  5. Ganse B et al. Skin Temperature in Master Long-Distance Runners — Results From a Field Study at the 2018 World Master Athletics Championships. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. April 9, 2020.
  6. Sweating. MedlinePlus. June 20, 2023.
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Kara-Andrew-bio

Kara Andrew, RDN, LDN

Medical Reviewer
Member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Kara Andrew, RDN, LDN, is the director of health promotion for Memorial Hospital in Carthage, Illinois. She is also licensed as an exercise physiologist and certified in lifestyle medicine by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Her experience includes corporate wellness, teaching for the American College of Sports Medicine, sports nutrition, weight management, integrative medicine, oncology support, and dialysis.

She earned her master's in exercise and nutrition science at Lipscomb University.

Andrew has served as a president and board member of the Nashville Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She was recently elected a co-chair of the fitness and medicine group in the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

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Adam Felman

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Adam is a freelance writer and editor based in Sussex, England. He loves creating content that helps people and animals feel better. His credits include Medical News Today, Greatist, ZOE, MyLifeforce, and Rover, and he also spent a stint as senior updates editor for Screen Rant.

As a hearing aid user and hearing loss advocate, Adam greatly values content that illuminates invisible disabilities. (He's also a music producer and loves the opportunity to explore the junction at which hearing loss and music collide head-on.)

In his spare time, Adam enjoys running along Worthing seafront, hanging out with his rescue dog, Maggie, and performing loop artistry for disgruntled-looking rooms of 10 people or less.

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