Calories Burned During Sexual Activity

Sexual activity can take a lot of energy, as anyone who has been left panting and breathless can agree. It can also be dull and unenthusiastic. It can involve every muscle in your body, or it could involve almost none. The amount of calories you burn will depend on certain factors, including how you have sex and how long you do it for.

Significance

Any physical activity will cause you to burn calories, whether it's walking the dog or pumping iron at the gym. Generally speaking, the faster your heart is beating and the hotter and sweatier you get, the more calories you will burn. Sexual activity can be divided between foreplay and intercourse, with foreplay such as kissing and cuddling equivalent to light exercise, while sexual intercourse usually counts as vigorous exercise.

Figures

According to the calories burned calculator at HealthStatus, a 180 lb. man will burn 119 calories in an hour of foreplay, or just under 2 calories a minute, while he will burn 346 calories during an hour of intercourse, or just under 6 calories a minute. According to research data from the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, that means in terms of calories burned, foreplay is roughly equivalent to an hour of watering the lawn while sex is equivalent to raking the lawn. For someone weighing 130 lbs., the figures are 86 calories for foreplay and 250 for sex.

Other Factors

The pace of sexual activity tends to be varied, so it's hard to determine whether figures for calories burned can take into account how unpredictable sex can be. Studies have shown that during physical exercise, brief periods of intense exertion interspersed by short periods of less intense exertion can actually burn a greater amount of energy than longer, steadier, less intense periods of exercise. Furthermore, the metabolic boost provided by this inconsistent activity results in more calories being burned in the following hours.

Caution

You should not rely on sex as your only form of exercise. Although an hour of sex might burn roughly as many calories as an hour of hatha yoga, that amount is roughly equivalent to the calories contained in two large glasses of wine. The calorie burning effects are just a fringe benefit.

Other Benefits

While sex may not necessarily keep you slim by burning off the calories, it has other health benefits. Sexual health writer Brian Alexander cites studies by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, the Journal of the American Medical Association and Rutgers University and lists benefits including easing stress and depression, relieving pain, countering prostate cancer and promoting healing.