Having sex isn’t such a great workout on its own, assuming you’re like most people who report only burning 100 calories at best. But did you know that, thanks to hormones, your appetite is suppressed after you do “it”? Here’s how to lose weight by having sex.
According to Medical News Today, men participating in a study burned on average 101 calories and women 69 calories when they had sex. The average intensity was higher than walking but lower than jogging.
At the lower end, men burned 13 calories and women 11.6, while at the top of the range, men shifted 306 calories and women 164.
While the average duration of foreplay, intercourse, and orgasm was 24.7 minutes, the actual time the couples spent having sex ranged from 12.5 to 36.9 minutes.
The data doesn’t explain how vigorous (or quick) the sex was, but it doesn’t take a doctor to conclude that if you want to lose weight by having sex, you’ll need to approach it like an Olympic athlete. Either go for the gold or don’t go at all.
But the “love hormone” known as oxytocin, which is produced in the hypothalamus and our gastrointestinal tract, skyrockets when we orgasm. But also, according to Dr. Elizabeth A. Lawson of the Neuroendocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston :
…experiments in rodents, nonhuman primates and humans consistently show that oxytocin reduces caloric consumption.
The bad news here is that oxytocin doesn’t stay in your systems long after sex, which means you’ll only experience less than 10 minutes of a sex haze appetite.
The moral of this story is that if you want to lose weight by having sex, have more of it and make it intense. That way, you’ll reap the benefits of both the cardio and the lagging appetite. It’s basic math. Bon appetite!
