Base on the 2018 physical activity guidelines for aerobic activities:
- 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity*⤈, OR;
- 75 to 150 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity*
Sorry if this sounded a silly or inappropriate , but I was really genuinely curious if sex could be considered an “aerobic physical activity” . Can sexual intercourse be an alternative or even replacement to cardio? I know there’s many variances in METs primarily from the different positions , and male/female contribution.
If someone is in a relationship or married, one would argue this can be a very timely efficient manner to meet the physical guidelines especially if life stress and time can be an issue?
I tried searching in the BBM forums and couldn’t find anything on this topic.
Short answer, probably not.
Longer answer, maybe, but probably not.
The MET values listed for sex in the 2011 Compendium are between 1.3-2.8 METs, which wouldn’t really qualify as moderate or vigorous activity. A few different research groups have tested energy expenditure in various different ways and found large variations between couples. The highest values I’ve seen in the literature for young, healthy couples is ~ 6.0 METs, which just crosses the threshold for vigorous intensity activity.
The duration part is really the problem, with most sexual activity that would register as moderate or vigorous intensity activity lasting ~ 5.5 minutes. Again, there are large inter-individual differences in duration.
If someone was having enough vigorous sex to reach 500-1000 MET-minutes per week then they could replace their aerobic exercise requirement with sex. But…I don’t think most people would qualify.