Ever wished you had an accurate calorie burn count for each time you have sex so you can monitor your weight loss? Fortunately, Anthony D. Karelis, professor of exercise science at the University of Quebec at Montreal undertook a study to find out how much energy is actually exerted during sex. Karelis says that issue of sex as an exercise is largely unexplored, and it’s only a myth that sex burns at least 100 calories per session.
To really solve how much weight sex can help you lose, Karelis and his colleagues recruited 21 young heterosexual couples in committed relationships and asked them to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes while taking their vitals. Then, they sent them home with special armbands that would track their movements. The scientists instructed them to complete at least one sex act a week for a month while wearing the armbands, and to fill out questionnaires about how each session made them fee, physically and psychologically, especially compared with running on a treadmill.
Karelis concluded that sex qualified as “moderate exercise”. Results also showed that sex burned four calories per minute for men and three per minute for women. The results were similar according to various estimates, of playing doubles tennis or walking uphill. The jogging was much more strenuous with men burning about nine calories per minute and women about seven.
The overall data reveals that “sex can be considered, at times, a significant exercise,” Karelis said.
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