The Ultimate Sex Diet

“My stomach and buttocks were the flabbiest they had ever been,” says New York model, actress, and research expert Kerry McCloskey. But within three months of meeting her future husband she had lost ten pounds without even trying because of an “increased metabolism due to our intense sexual activity.”

“Aerobically, a half-hour romp in the sheets burns approximately 150–200 calories and sometimes even 350 calories if you are really frisky,” says Ms. McCloskey. “This is roughly the equivalent of briskly walking, running, or lifting weights for thirty minutes,” she says. “My husband and I have sex about eight times per week. You do the math.”

After losing another 13 pounds over the next three months, Ms. McCloskey documented her weight loss regimen in The Ultimate Sex Diet: The Secret Scientific Formula for a Slimmer, Healthier, More Passionate Life. She described her diet to a national audience on the November 11 broadcast of the Oprah Winfrey Show that also featured weight loss advice from “fat actress” Kirstie Alley.

Ms. McCloskey cites no source for the 150–200 calorie estimate, but she credits an October 15, 2003, article inThe Guardian for the higher figure: “A half-hour session can burn up to 350 calories — the same as a 30-minute run.” The article does not appear to be archived in The Guardian’s online archives for 2003.

According to CalorieLab’s Calories Burned database, derived from authoritative sources, a 150-pound person will only burn 10 calories per half hour during moderate sexual activity and 17 calories per half hour duringvigorous sexual activity. No calories are burned duringlight sexual activity such as hugging and kissing. Running at an 8-1/2 minute-per-mile pace will burn 357 calories per half hour. All these figures are for calories burned in excess of normal resting metabolism, which are the calories you burn anyway just sitting around watching television.

Using the CalorieLab figures, a 150-pound person who has 30 minutes of sex seven days per week, comprising ten minutes each of light, moderate, and vigorous sexual activity, will burn 9 calories per day. Over a year this level of activity will allow you to lose almost a pound.

But even though the calories burned during sex are not significant, there are other benefits to dieters. Howard Shapiro, M.D., a New York City weight-loss specialist, says, “If someone has a healthy sex life, they will be less frustrated and people eat less when they are not frustrated.”