Can you lose weight through sex? We have the answers

Sex is good. Looking flab and obese on the other hand is unhealthy. Many also tend to refer to obesity in negative terms. Now, imagine being able to have lots of sex and in the process, shed off some of the flab. And what better day to start a ‘sexercise’ regimen than on Valentine’s day. Wouldn’t it be just great? It would be like hitting two birds with the same cupid arrow.

Research has shown that sex is also a form of exercise. On average, every minute of sex burns five calories. So, working the sheets for 20 minutes will blast off 100 calories. But putting all factors into consideration, it looks like sex (as much as it would be the easiest option) wouldn’t be the best way to achieve weight loss or to get into shape. Here is why:

The British Royal Society for Public Health has published calorie scores on food packaging to show how much and type of exercise one would need to burn them off.

To completely burn the energy stored in a muffin, one needs to walk (in moderate speed) for one hour, 12 minutes. It takes one hour and 43 minutes of nonstop romp to achieve the same results. For one slice of carrot cake, three hours and seven minutes of coitus would do the trick.

The general observation from these findings – which also carries details of more than 20 snack types – is that it needs a lot more sex to burn the same amount of calories, possible through brisk walking or running at moderate speed.

The Royal Society for Public Health does not specify who (between a man and a woman) burns the specified calories. According to Dr Lyudmyla Shchukina, an obesity specialist at Healthy Living clinic in Upper Hill, men (generally considered more active during copulation) spend more calories.

“During average sex, men burn about 100 calories and women expend 69 in every session,” Shchukina says. “This is approximately equal to one slice of bread.” Therein lies the problem.

If the average person consumes 2,000 calories every day (of which majority do), it would need nearly seven hours of sex every day to burn all of it. On that alone, the bar is too high for the average man: even a stallion can barely rise to such an occasion.

Shchukina says that it would be easier to lose weight by eating less and doing nothing compared to eating like the average man and having lots of sex.

Her final verdict: “Healthy sex is good for fitness, but not for weight loss.”

Besides, she adds, to lose weight properly, one needs to address all the aspects of obesity: psychological (food addiction and overeating while stressed), social (using food to socialise), metabolic and anatomical (an expanded stomach).

In addition, before considering sex as a weight loss option, it would be worth noting that obesity would have in the first place affected virility. Shchukina reveals that patients (mostly men) arrive at her clinic with complaints of reduced sex drive.

Obesity causes hormonal imbalance and therefore influences the reproductive system. This Valentines’ the good doctor says, it will be healthy (of course it is) to have sex. “Sex is good for reproduction, reduction of stress, and the feel-good hormone... but not for weight loss.”

You will need to work a lot harder if you want to lose weight through sex.