The Sex Diet

Depending on which report you read, a sexual session can burn anywhere from 100 to 250 calories. Clearly the range is related to the level of athleticism during sex. Ballet maneuvers related to the level of athleticism during sex. Ballet maneuvers and handsprings during sex will burn more calories than will the “lie back and wait for the royal treatment to arrive” technique. Also in the equation is whether the event is a noontime “quickie” or an extended night of erotic pleasure.

According to a survey of 152 heterosexual Canadian couples, the average lovemaking session for women lasts 18.3 minutes. This consists of 11.3 minutes of foreplay and 7 minutes of intercourse. (Interestingly, the male halves of these same couples reported that foreplay lasted 13.4 minutes—considerably longer than what their female counterparts claimed.)

Women’s ideal durations of foreplay and intercourse, as opposed to what they’re actually having, were considerably longer—19 minutes of foreplay and 14 minutes of intercourse. According to a survey of over 1,400 women aged eighteen to fifty-nine years, American women have sex about 6.3 times per month. The average is somewhat higher among twenty-to thirty year-olds (7.5 times per month) and somewhat lower among fifty-to sixty-year-olds (four times per month).

Given that a pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories, the average American woman burns 3.78 pounds of fat a year having sex. So if American women all suddenly stopped having sex, in ten years they would all be thirty-eight pounds heavier. Viewed another way, if women had sex four times a week instead of twice, or managed to extend the session from 18.3 minutes to 36.6 minutes per romp, women would lose an extra four pounds of fat a year. Or they could remain the same weight and consume an extra seventeen chocolate sundaes, twentythree sugar-glazed doughnuts, and fourteen champagne truffles a year—definitely food for thought.