Sex is an excellent option that can improve your chances of losing weight as it is a form of exercise. Although sex won’t substitute for rigorous workouts, it is entirely possible to lose weight with regular sex.
Weight loss has become such a common health practice, as everyone seems to know about the dangers of being too fat these days. Obesity. Diabetes. Heart disease, etc. Half of the American population, for example, is on a diet, which suggests that around that number is interested in losing some weight and keeping fit.
People approach weight loss in different ways. While some are strong dieters who only diet, others take to the gym and may include dieting, and some others may seek out other paths to weight loss.
But are there really other paths to weight loss, though? Does regular sex make you lose weight?
Understanding Weight Gain and Weight Loss
To understand weight loss and how it works, what works and what does not, one has first got to understand weight gain.
We gain weight when our bodies store unused calories in our tissues and organs. A calorie is a unit of energy that relates to the energy stored in food.
Calories provide our bodies the energy required for catabolism—for normal cell-tissue-organ function—on a daily basis. This is why we have to eat so that our cells can function properly.
With too low calories circulating within our systems, we would grow weak and tired and lose a lot of weight as the body attempts to empty its calorie stores to compensate for the deficit in energy circulation.
However, with too much, we will gain a lot of weight and be prone to a number of excessive weight gain-related diseases.
We will gain weight because the body’s regulatory mechanisms strictly regulate the number of calories circulating in the body per unit of time. Only a certain number of calories are expected to circulate per unit of time.
When this number is reached, the body binds all the excess calories and takes them to stores within the body. Calorie stores are usually fat stores.
The flaps of fat you see on your arms, tummy, and other fatty areas of your body are just excess calories stored up for future use.
Weight loss happens when we force our bodies to return to the energy stores and pull out the excess calories they once stored, making use of the calories.
How do we achieve this? How do we convince our bodies that it is time to go back to stores and make use of excess fats?
Well, first, we reduce the number of calories entering the body in the first place. If we want to empty a room of large boxes, the first step will be to stop anyone from bringing any more boxes into that room. This is where dieting comes in—dieting attempts to keep too many calories away from the body so that the body can focus on emptying its reserves.
Second, we are going to put more energy demands on the body. We do this by increasing the rate of catabolism (This just means breaking down food to release nutrients.)
We can do this by increasing our body movements—basically, exercise. Exercise places a huge demand on our bodies; this is why when we trek or jog or move around the house really fast, we tend to start breathing faster.
This happens because the heart pumps heavier and faster, sensing more energy demands throughout the body.
The skin responds to this by producing more sweat. The mouth responds by making us thirst more. The muscles respond by growing larger. And overall, the body responds by depleting its energy stores.
If we do these two things long enough and well enough, we will see that we start to meet weight loss goals.
That brings us to the question:
Does Sex Make a Person Lose Weight?
Now that you understand how weight is lost, it won’t be difficult to know if regular sex makes a person lose weight.
Remember, anything that makes a person burn or use up more calories than a person is eating will make the person lose weight.
Does sex help a person use up calories?
Of course, it does. How does it feel just after sex? It feels exhausting sometimes, and your breathing is raised slightly. You may sweat, too, like you have just rounded a workout session and may feel thirsty and hungry.
Sex, you see, even though oftentimes less vigorous, is exercise children can’t do, haha; like most exercises, you have to repeatedly make certain movements, making use of a number of muscle groups and burning calories.
Prof Antony D. Karelis and a team from Universite du Quebec a Montreal conducted research in 2013. The purpose of the research was to ascertain how many calories people use up when they have sex.
This research involved studying 21 heterosexual couples, who were all between the ages of 18 and 28. The couples had sex once every week for a period of one month. During the sex, each of the couples put on a tracker that tracked how much energy they spent.
At the end of the research, the team came to the conclusion that men used up just about 101 calories per sexual, and women, 69! This is just about the number of calories we use up when we walk. This makes sex a form of moderate exercise.
Even though the number of calories lost during sex may differ, depending on the intensity and the duration of each sexual encounter, sex is sure going to help you burn a lot of calories.
If you have sex four times a week, for example, and you are one to burn 101 calories per sexual encounter, by the end of the week, you could have lost 404 calories! It might seem like little, but this can be so remarkable in your weight-loss journey.
Regular sex sure can help you lose weight by burning calories.
Sex Can Do More Than Burn Calories
Remember that weight loss is a two-fold thing. You burn calories and limit the number of calories you take in.
Above, we have discussed that sex can help a person lose calories. But how about the intake? Well, sex can just about help you reduce that too.
Oxytocin, the love hormone produced by special cells in our hypothalamus, has been known to increase whenever we have sex, especially if we attain orgasm.
This hormone is responsible for feelings of attachment, making us feel attached to the people we have sex with. But this isn’t just it.
Oxytocin does more than make us feel attached. It can have an effect on our appetite and desire to take in calories.
This effect, however, does not last so long. We soon go back to taking calories or wanting to have some.
How to Lose Weight With Sex
To lose weight from taking advantage of sex, you have to know your way around it. You are not just having sex; you want to lose weight. This is how you get the best out of sex on your weight loss journey:
1. Make Sure You are Into It
Don’t just have sex. Be into it. Feel your body and allow yourself some room for enjoyment. You and your partner may try different sex positions and attempt to meet each other’s fantasies.
This is killing two birds with one stone, as it is going to push you one step ahead in your weight-loss goal while making you and your partner bond.
2. Regular Sex is fine, But Not Too Much
While regular sex can be a good thing, too much sex can put you at certain risks. For example, too much sex can put you at risk of getting addicted. In your weight loss journey, addiction is the last distraction you need.
Sex is also known to trigger heart attacks in men, even though the odds are strikingly low, so you may want to tone it down a bit if you have been told that you are prone to getting a heart attack.
3. Dieting
Relying on sex alone may not help very much. This is why you should also add a dieting plan to your sex routine. To lose weight, please stay away from high-calorie meals. Cut back on fatty foods and processed sugar.
Stick to dieting plans that are easy to follow and do not put too much strain on your mental state. Check out this article to understand how cheat meals can be useful in dieting.
4. Exercise
Even when you are having regular sex, you can still have some time to work out. Hit the gym, go for a walk, go on strolls in the evenings.
If you and your partner are both interested in losing weight, then you can make him or her your gym partner.
Summary
Weight loss happens when we use up the excess calories stored in our body’s stores. Sex can make this happen. However, we need to be careful and not forget that the goal is to lose weight.
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
