Sex is a good exercise

 

You have to believe that it’s more pleasurable than hitting the treadmill – and there are many acknowledged health benefits. But is making love actually an alternative to aerobic exercise? Do you know how many calories do sex burn?

Research has discovered that sex, which is rated as reasonably powerful exercise, uses up 3.1 calories in women a minute and 4.2 in men. A study, published in the American journal PLOS ONE, took 21 young couples and used a Sense Wear armband to evaluate the effects of fair exercise on a treadmill, compared with sex. Usually Sex took 24.7 minutes, with women burning up 70 calories and men using 101. Approximately everybody in the study found the sex more pleasurable than the treadmill. So shouldn't you hang up your exercising shoes and try "sex exercise" instead?

Sex is accredited with having various other health benefits. They're not all scientifically confirmed because it's complicated for researchers to measure the effects of sex on different health outcomes in a homogeneous way. Most research is also of heterosexual sex. But claims include decrease in heart disease and diabetes and mainly comfortable in a good sleep, appearance and immunity.

Sex is also attributed with falling period cramps and chronic pain – although both would put many people off having it. Saying "not tonight, I've got a headache" may also not be a medically applicable cause for refusing: more than one study shows that it might lessen headaches, although it's less trustworthy than tablets.

Sex is linked with endorsing wellbeing – and you don't even need a partner – a study in 1986 found that men and women in older age who masturbated had reduced rates of depression.

Sex may also lessen stress – a small study looking at the association between sexes in the two-week period before stressful events found that people who had intercourse showed the smallest increase in blood pressure when dealing with these events.

Sexual activity has also been linked with longevity – a study in the BMJ carried out in south Wales that followed 918 men aged between 49-59 for 10 years found that those who had been having two or more orgasms a week had 50% lesser mortality rates. The authors of the study cite other research signifying that quality of sex is vital in realizing the health benefits.

But this newest study really shows that sex uses only a few calories – the treadmill used about three times as many. The sex was also expected to be more vigorous than usual because people knew they were being observed.

Sex is a gauge of good health as well as contributing to it. But the research usually recommends more is not unavoidably better and that quality is what matters.