Fallen off the diet wagon already? Fear not. Scientists say sex counts as exercise! 
If you’re anything like us, January started with great intentions and now that five-day a week gym habit has slipped back to well, one – or erm, none. But fret not if you want to lose weight, being in the bedroom may just be as beneficial as a session in the gym.
According to the latest research, sex counts as ‘significant exercise’ and men can burn off 120 calories from half an hour between the sheets, while women can work off 90 calories in that time. Hurray!
The researchers were keen to point out that people can burn off just as many calories in over an hour of sex than they can from a 30-minute jogging session – and this could help contribute and shape weight loss regimes in the future.
The study, which was entitled ‘Energy Expenditure During Sexual Activity in Healthy Young Couples’ (bit of a mouthful and somewhat self-explanatory) and published in the Public Library of Science, saw researchers from the University if Quebec in Canada recruit 20 heterosexual couples, aged between 18 and 35 and instructed them to have sex once a 
week for a month. The scientists measured that men burned off an average of 4.2 calories a minute during sex, compared to 9.2 on the treadmill and women worked off 3.1 calories in the bedroom, compared to 7.1 when jogging.
For brief interludes during sex men used more energy than they did while jogging. The study concluded : “Considering that sexual activity may be one of the most regularly practiced activities throughout an individual’s life time, it seems important to conduct research on this topic.”
Erm, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
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