Abstract: During tensile and temperature tests, the latent heat of hot-rolled TRIP steel was dynamically investigated by observing the stress-strain and thermal curves. The results indicated that during the tensile test, the hot-rolled TRIP steel increased the thermal energy, which originated from the partial transformation of plastic work and martensitic transformation. Therefore, the actual heat of the measured sample was higher than that converted by plastic work. During the low speed tensile test, the thermal energy of the TRIP steel was supplemented by the average integrated heat loss coefficient. Through calculation and deduction, it was confirmed that a certain amount of the unstable residual austenite first became martensite, when the plastic deformation had just begun. As the strain increased further, the amount of the remaining, stable, retained austenite that would become martensite, decreased gradually according to its stability. Most of the retained austenite had almost become martensite before the end of the uniform elongation. During the deformation process of the hot rolled TRIP steel, the martensitic transformation could be dynamically described by the change of latent heat.