Lots of people like to think of sex as a form of exercise or at least a flimsy excuse to avoid exercising. But just how much fat is actually being burned away in the process?
Debunking the widely-held theory that sex can equate to roughly an hour of working out, new research has found it’s not nearly that efficient.
Men, however, were found to burn calories at a significantly higher rate than women during sex.
For men, the average was 101 calories during a lovemaking session compared to only 69 calories for women.
To find these results, researchers tracked how many calories were burned by 21 heterosexual couples over four separate sexual encounters. The sex occurred in the subjects’ home, with the couples asked to perform only as they normally would.
“For men, the average was 101
calories during a lovemaking session.”
Each partner wore a recording device tucked into an armband that measured their vitals. The results were measured from the beginning of foreplay through the end of the session.
Additionally, each participant was later asked to wear the armband while jogging and running to provide a comparison balance.
The participants were found to typically burn at least twice the calories running for half an hour on a treadmill as they would having during a standard session of lovemaking.
Men burned nearly three times as many calories running – 276 compared to 101 for women.
According to the study, “The level of intensity that is exerted from sexual activity could be higher than that of walking at (three miles per hour) but less than that of jogging at (five miles per hour).”
The report reminds readers that a lesser level of exercise is still exercise nonetheless.
“Taken together, these results suggest that sexual activity may potentially be considered, at times, as a significant exercise,” the study read.
From healthywomen.org.
