- Sex Burns Calories, Increases Heart Rate and Rarely Causes Cardiac Arrest | Photo: iStock
This is a translation made by The newspaper of the note Does sex count as exercise?, original from The Washington Post.
Whether on a special date or on any typical day of the year, many couples will have sex. Some will look at their watches or fitness trackers and wonder: are we exercising now?
There are scientists who have also wondered. Sexual activity is a popular and pleasurable way to spend 32.38 minutes (more on that later). But is it a physically intense or relaxed activity? Can it burn as many calories as running, or is it more of an easy walk? Does it increase heart rate? Can it cause heart attacks? And what if you have a big competition tomorrow? Should you remain chaste tonight?
Given the prevalence of sexual intercourse—it may be the physical activity least likely to be skipped—answers matter, and a number of recent studies offer preliminary answers, including some startling statistics about the typical age of someone experiencing “sudden cardiac arrest.” during sexual intercourse and to what extent exercise improves sexual function and satisfaction.
But probably the most pressing question about sex and exercise is: “Is sex exercise?”
The answer, in many ways, seems to be a yes. In a review article published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, researchers from the University of Almería and the University of Murcia in Spain collated all the previous studies they could find that examined the physical efforts involved in intercourse.
However, not many studies were available because intercourse is a difficult activity to study, whether for polite or political reasons. The studies they found mainly involved engaged, mostly married, heterosexual couples who often visited a laboratory to be scientifically observed while having sex. In some cases, the couples wore heart rate monitors or other tracking devices; in other cases, the couples were filmed and their movement patterns analyzed.
But even despite the limitations, the Spanish researchers were able to find patterns.
Sex counts as moderate exercise
Obviously, sexual intercourse increases the heart rate and burns energy. In studies where people wore tracking devices, heart rates averaged between 90 and 130 beats per minute (bpm) and peaked between 145 and 170 bpm. In general, the women had lower heart rates than the men.
Average caloric intake during intercourse also varied widely, depending on people’s position, their gender, and other more difficult-to-find factors, such as whether they were at home or under observation in a lab. In one study, total energy expenditure during a single session of sexual activity reached 130 calories, while in another experiment, it peaked at around 101 calories for men and 69 calories for women.
These measurements indicate that “sexual activity can cause physical demands of moderate or even vigorous intensity,” explained José M. Muyor, professor at the Health Research Center of the University of Almería, who led the review study.
The numbers are similar to those for an easy run, except for the heart rate spikes, which were higher than usual when running and generally during orgasm, which is rare at that time.
Regarding the duration of the sexual episodes, they also varied. In young, healthy couples in one study, sex lasted an average of 32.38 minutes; while in another study among couples with health problems, such as heart disease, it only lasted around 19 minutes.
In all studies, duration was considered to start with foreplay and end with male orgasm. Whether those parameters adequately capture the experience of both people involved is debatable, but “we limited ourselves to describing the methods and protocols that each study conducted,” Muyor said.
Can sex stop your heart?
Other scientists have recently been investigating whether sex, while briefly invigorating hearts, can also stop them under certain circumstances, and not metaphorically.
And featured study of 2022 published in JAMA Cardiology about people in London who suffered sudden cardiac arrest after an hour of sexual intercourse, found that such deaths were surprisingly rare.
Of the 6,847 cases of fatal sudden cardiac arrest referred to a pathology center in London between 1994 and 2020, only 17 occurred during or almost immediately after sexual intercourse.
But of those 17, six were women, which was somewhat unexpected, and most were relatively young. The mean age was 38 years.
Similarly, a study A 2018 study in Paris of people who survived sudden cardiac arrest between 2011 and 2016 found that about 0.6%, or a total of 17—all men and most in their 50s—suffered cardiac arrest during or shortly after the sexual act. By comparison, 229 of the other cases occurred while doing sports or other physical activities; and 2,782 in other situations.
Interestingly, resuscitation attempts in men who suffered cardiac arrest during or shortly after sex tended to start later than in other situations, perhaps due to the partners’ disbelief or “some degree of embarrassment,” Eloi Marijon explained. , professor of cardiology at the University of Paris and co-author of the study.
“We have no information on the marital status of the couples,” he added.
But the main finding of his research in this and other areas is that cardiac arrests during or due to sex remain extremely rare, he said. And the more someone has sex, the more the risks decrease.
“During any physical activity,” including sex, “the risk of cardiac arrest is greater than at rest,” but hearts, like other muscles, get stronger and more resistant to cardiac arrest the harder people work, even during sex. “Sexual activity,” she said, “should not be seen as a risky situation.”
Sex does not weaken the legs
It’s also unlikely that sex will compromise the competition or training you’ll have tomorrow. This despite widespread myths to the contrary. (“Women make their legs weak,” he warned the coach to Rocky in the 1976 film).
A 2022 review published in Scientific Reports concluded that “sexual activity within 30 (minutes) to 24 (hours) before exercise does not appear to affect aerobic fitness, musculoskeletal endurance, or strength/power.”
The review, which collected data from nine studies involving 133 people, almost all men, who had sex in the hours before some form of physical test, also found that intercourse did not improve physical performance.
Sex, in other words, had no significant effect, which is perhaps reassuring to both sexually active and non-sexually active people.
“There is no reason to avoid or promote sex before a sexual race or competition,” said Gerald Zavorsky, a professor of physiology and membrane biology at the University of California at Davis, who led the review.
Of course, to think of sex solely as a competitive tool or even just another form of moderate exercise is to risk diminishing some of its poetic and intimate mystery.
On the other hand, if you ever decide to consider exercise as a way to improve your sex life, that would be a good idea. according to a study In a 2019 study that included more than 6,000 men and women, those who exercised more were less likely to report erectile dysfunction (for men) or sexual dysfunction (for women). In other words, exercising regularly can have a positive effect on the sexual health of both men and women.
Translated by José Silva