How Many Calories Do You Actually Burn During Sex?
Can anything spice up hay riding more than worrying about how many calories you’re burning while doing it? Impossible, right? So, let’s take a look at the energy consumption of different ways of having sex, calculated by the world’s greatest scientists. And when I talk about scientific minds, I mostly mean people who work in marketing.
This post was inspired by a “new study” that came in my inbox from one of those mail order drug companies for erectile dysfunction, genital herpes, and hair loss (among other things). They compared calories burned per minute in various sex positions and are the latest in a long line of marketing companies to do so.
For example: the small print on their calculator states that the data was sourced from “previous articles” on the subject. Only one such article is linked; this is from the famous reproductive health magazine Marie Claire . Marie Claire , in turn, quotes GolfSupport.com. The original article from the respected GolfSupport.com magazine does not seem to be available, but I found articles with a link to the CEO of this company on the topic of burning calories during sex. The CEO (name: Gary Lockwood) is apparently actually/also the CEO of a company called 24/7 Fitness, which has reportedly been looking into this by making people wear FitBits during sex . (I’m not sure I found the end of the road, but that’s all I had time to do before my article was ready.)
You will be shocked to know that Fitbits are not very accurate when calculating calories burned and, as far as I can tell, have not been tested to measure the physical activity that occurs during sex. Devices rely on heart rate to determine calories burned, and I don’t think I’m going too far to suggest that heart rate may go up during sex for reasons other than energy use for exercise.
How can I burn the most calories during sex?
Okay, now we’re asking the real questions. If we assume accuracy doesn’t matter (trainers aren’t very accurate either ), how can we use the best of science and allied marketing claims to turn our next passionate lovemaking opportunity into a killer workout?
First, take a ridiculous position. The email that started this chain of requests noted that “churn” is the position that burns the most calories. This pose involves a man and a woman, supposedly equipped with a penis and a vagina, respectively. The woman has to do what looks like a shoulder stand while the man somehow stays on top of her while pushing… down ? In her? The calculator says a man burns 211 calories in 30 minutes of “activity” and doesn’t give a number for a woman.
If you’ve ever done a shoulder stand in a yoga class, it’s an athletic feat, even if no one is pushing you. I’m not sure that the position illustrated and obliquely described on many websites actually exists or that anyone has ever done it for the full 30 minutes. This position was not mentioned in the original acclaimed 24/7 Fitness study, which makes me wonder if the results could have been rigged along the way.
If you want an alternative to a churn, the USDA has calculated that a 200-pound man would burn the same number of calories gardening for half an hour .
No actually, how do I calculate my sex calories??
Okay, look. Calories burned during any activity depend on three factors: how hard you work, how big you are (bigger people burn more calories), and how long you keep exercising.
You will then want to compare your calories burned during this activity with the calories you would burn just sitting around doing nothing. That same 200-pound man would burn 54 calories sitting in front of the TV for half an hour (again, according to the USDA, God bless them).
A (real) study out of Montreal found that among “young healthy couples” (mean age 22), sex is approximately 6 METs or metabolic equivalents, placing it in the same category of “moderate exercise” as brisk walking. They also found that the average time for sex in this population was 25 minutes. We should all get at least 150 minutes a week of exercise at this level , so you can replace some of your brisk walks with sex if you like; be sure to use a timer.
On the other hand, a group of nutrition, obesity and exercise researchers concluded that sex is more realistic for most of us than 3 METs and lasts an average of 6 minutes, which reduces calories to a level that is practically useless as exercise. (although, as the American physical activity guidelines remind us, every minute of exercise counts ).
If you want to follow the recommendations for aerobic exercise, you can have sex six times for 25 minutes or 25 times for six minutes, in the churn position or in any other position you desire. But since our body compensates for the calories burned during exercise , it makes sense to just have as much sex as you want and then calculate your total energy expenditure based on changes in your weight. We’ve attached a spreadsheet here in case you and your partner want to fill it out together in bed.