How Many Calories Are “Burned” During Sexual Activity? The action can be considered exercise, but is it more of a brisk run or a walk? If it’s like physical activity, could it definitely hurt the heart? A few scientific studies have answered these and other curious questions, although the numbers are few. In particular, a review of the best to answer the most frequently asked questions has selected 18.
sex numbers
The review, conducted by the University of Almería and Murcia in Spain and published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, reveals some more specific numbers. Of course, the sexual act speeds up the heart and burns calories.
In studies where people wore a monitoring system, heart rates averaged between 90 and 130 beats per minute and peaked at between 145 and 170 bpm. The heart rate in women tends to be lower than in men.
In terms of total energy expenditure, 130 calories were achieved during a single intercourse, while another experiment totaled approximately 101 calories for males and 69 calories for females. Mean calorie expenditure during intercourse varied widely depending on the duration and locations of the subjects.
In terms of duration of intercourse alone, sex lasted an average of 32-38 minutes in young and healthy couples, while it lasted around 19 minutes in a study examining couples with health conditions, including heart disease.
An easy ride, but it takes less
These measurements show that “sexual activity can cause physical demands of moderate or even vigorous intensity,” said José M. Muyor, a professor at the University of Almería Health Research Center who led the research. For the unit of time considered, we can say that the numbers are similar to those of a light jog, except for the spikes in heart rate that occur in connection with orgasm.
blocked blood flow
Men and women: common symptoms
Heart attack and sex, very rare occurrence
Don’t worry about heart health, on which there are more studies. In 2022, JAMA Cardiology published research recording 6,847 fatal sudden cardiac arrests at a London heart disease center between 1994 and 2020: only 17 occurred during or almost immediately after intercourse, but of those 17, 6 were female and most were relatively young because the mean age was 38 years. Another 2018 study in Paris of people who survived sudden cardiac arrest between 2011 and 2016 found that about 0.6 percent, 17 in total (all men and most in their 50s), during or immediately after sex suffered cardiac arrest. For comparison, 229 of the other cases occurred during sports or other physical activities and 2,782 in other situations.