We all know that having sex certainly counts as physical activity and sometimes even reaches the level of moderate exercise. However, is it enough to help you manage the extra pounds many of us have packed on during lockdown? A study published in the journal PLoS ONE finally gives us some hard numbers to consider and directly compares sex to another type of exercise.
In this study, 21 heterosexual couples aged 18-35 who were in sexually monogamous, long-term relationships had sex for science. They were asked to have sex in the privacy of their own homes on four separate occasions and to practice their “usual” sexual activities. They were instructed not to use Viagra or any other performance enhancement drugs and they were told to avoid any paraphilic sexual activities. So unassisted vanilla sex. During sex, the couples were told to wear an armband that could record the amount of energy expended. Participants were supposed to put the armband on as soon as foreplay began and to take it off at the end of their sexual encounter. For comparison purposes, each participant also wore the armband during a 30-minute jog on a treadmill so that researchers could see how sexual activity stacks up with running.
On average, participants’ sexual activity sessions lasted about 25 minutes. Across the four sessions, male participants burned an average of 101 calories each time (or 4.2 calories per minute), while female participants burned 69 calories (or 3.1 calories per minute). In comparison, participants burned more than twice as many calories during a 30-minute run on the treadmill. Specifically, men burned 276 calories (9.2 calories/minute), while women burned 213 calories (7.1 calories per minute).
Although sexual activity tended to burn fewer calories than running, it is worth noting that both men and women reported that sex was more enjoyable and pleasurable than jogging on the treadmill. Sexercise will not replace the need for a gym membership or your running shoes, but if you double the amount of sex you’re having you could start chipping away at those pounds, or at least enjoy yourself while we wait for the world to reopen.
