Having an active sex life improves overall health. You just have to look at the benefits of orgasm to have a slight idea of the importance that sex can have on our health.
Specifically, orgasm is associated with better cardiovascular health and a better immune response.
Furthermore, “the high secretion of oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins during orgasm makes us feel in a better mood and relax,” Jesús E. Rodríguez, sexologist and director of the Murciano Sexological Institute, tells MyhealthMyskin.
Many studies have shown that having sex two to four times a week has other benefits such as improving mood or reducing stress.
This is so because “having sexual intercourse causes us to release a series of hormones that have a positive effect on mood, such as DHEA, and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and endorphins, which will make us feel more active and lively, while contributing to improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression”.
In addition, “it increases self-esteem since it reduces the levels of cortisol, the hormone that we secrete in situations of tension or stress.”
On the other hand, we must not forget that sex is, in itself, a physical activity and that depending on the sexual practice we carry out and its effusiveness or duration, this practice can become more or less beneficial in sports terms and it can even help us burn calories.
“The coital relations are those that are more like mild-moderate exercise and would be those that can burn more calories,” says Rodriguez.
In fact, the International Society for Sexual Medicine, speaks of an average of between “200 and 400 calories per sexual encounter”, although recent studies indicate that the figures range between 100 and 69, depending on sex (male or female).
However, as in all practice, a number of factors must be taken into account that will undoubtedly influence calorie burning, for better or for worse.”
Having a more active role during sexual intercourse, being a man or a woman, the duration of the sexual act, the weight of each member of the couple, age and fitness will undoubtedly influence caloric expenditure”, reports the expert.
Thus, for example, “young people would burn more calories than older people during sex and this is so because, as a rule, they are more vigorous.”
According to Rodríguez, the average age in which more calories would be burned during sex would be around 25 years.
As for the differences between men and women, the reality is that they burn more calories than they do.
According to a study published in the digital magazine Plos One, “on average, men spend 100 Kcal, while women 69 Kcal, during a sex session.”
The authors point out that “for every minute of sex, men consume an average of 4.2 Kcal, and women 3.1 Kcal.”
The explanation for this may be determined by weight. “Normally, men weigh more than women, so they need more calories to perform the same exercise,” says Rodríguez.
For this study, sexual activity was defined as the initiation of foreplay, intercourse and at least one orgasm by the man or the woman and ended at the discretion of the couple.
Over a period of one month, the couples were instructed to engage in one sexual activity per week at home.
Thus, all the couples had performed a total of 4 sexual activities and, at the same time, exercised on a treadmill for 30 minutes to compare one activity with another, in terms of physical effort.
Other data from the study was that only 5% of all participants reported that sexual activity was more strenuous compared to 30-minute treadmill exercise. 19% of them indicated that they were very fatigued and 7% reported a large expenditure of energy after sexual activity.
Approximately 98% of all participants reported that sexual activity was more pleasant than the 30-minute treadmill exercise, 81% reported a high level of personal pleasure, and 79% reported a high level of pleasure from their partner after sexual activity l.
How Much Sex Do I Need To Burn Calories?
As noted before, calorie burning will depend on many factors.
Even so, as Rodríguez explains, “if sexual practice involves an exercise intensity greater than walking at 4.8 km / h but less than jogging at 8 km / h and if the average time in which men ejaculate in a coital relationship is over 6 minutes”,
According to his calculations, “it would be necessary to have sexual intercourse on a daily basis for the calorie loss to be significant compared to a mild-moderate physical activity such as riding a bike with a gentle walk or walking a hour”.
And this is so because during sexual intercourse all muscles can be worked, of course, depending on “the posture you have and the intensity”.
What is clear is that the back and hip muscles are the most used.
Postures Burn Calories
Regarding which sexual positions are the ones that can burn the most calories, Rodríguez believes that “the position is not as important as the intensity of the act itself.”
Although, as he indicates, “it is true that caloric expenditure data have been recorded in different postures, being those in which the man or the woman are squatting the ones that consume the most calories”.
The positions in which the partner is on top are also more energetic.
On the other hand, with regard to men, “the position of the wheelbarrow and the one in which he stands with his legs semi-flexed while holding his partner by the waist are the ones that generate even more expense. caloric”. Says Rodríguez. To see more post on Men’s Health click here.
