How Many Calories Does Sex Burn? About 100, Not 500

Last reviewed 05 Oct 2026 by Surya G., Team MyMuse.

This article is for information and is not medical advice.

How many calories does sex actually burn?

Three to four a minute, measured rather than guessed. Researchers in Montreal fitted 21 heterosexual couples aged 19 to 31 with SenseWear armbands and sent them home. Across the sessions they logged, men averaged 101 kcal at 4.2 kcal per minute and women 69.1 kcal at 3.1, over a mean duration of 24.7 minutes that included foreplay. Mean intensity came out at 6.0 METs for men and 5.6 for women, which the authors summarise as about 85 kcal at moderate intensity (PLoS ONE, 2013). Two caveats worth keeping: the volunteers were young and fit, and they timed themselves.

Where did the 500-calorie number come from?

Nowhere traceable, which is the honest answer. The closest thing to a source is the claim the New England Journal of Medicine picked apart in its 2013 paper on obesity myths, listed there as "Myth number 7: A bout of sexual activity burns 100 to 300 kcal for each participant." The authors then did the arithmetic: a 70-kg man at 3 METs expends about 3.5 kcal per minute, or 210 an hour, and since the average bout runs about six minutes, that comes to roughly 21 kcal (N Engl J Med, 2013). The 500 figure looks like the 100 to 300 claim with extra confidence attached.

Is it anything like running?

No, and the same Montreal team checked that directly. Their couples also completed a 30-minute moderate treadmill run, which came to 276 kcal for men and 213 for women, roughly two and a half times what the bedroom sessions produced and in a shorter window (PLoS ONE, 2013). Harvard's reference table puts a 70-kg person at 288 kcal for 30 minutes of running at 5 mph and 360 kcal at 6 mph, against 133 to 175 kcal for the same half hour of walking (Harvard Health). A brisk walk is the right comparison.

What does it work out to at your weight?

Every number above belongs to somebody else's body, so here is the arithmetic for yours. A MET is a multiple of what you burn sitting still, and the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities grades the relevant codes at 1.8 METs for kissing and cuddling, 3.0 for sex at moderate effort and 5.8 for vigorous (Adult Compendium). The formula is kcal per minute = METs x weight in kg x 0.0175, then multiply by the minutes. Most published tables run this at 155 lb, so here it is at weights more common in India.

Calculated from the 2024 Adult Compendium MET values for codes 14030, 14020 and 14010, rounded to the nearest kcal.

Does kissing burn calories?

A little, and much less than the internet suggests. The Compendium's passive, light-effort code covering kissing and hugging sits at 1.8 METs, which works out to about 2 kcal a minute at 65 kg (Adult Compendium). Ten unhurried minutes lands near 20 kcal. Nobody has put an armband on kissing the way the Montreal team did with sex, so treat that as a MET estimate rather than a reading off a device. The honest version is that kissing was never a workout and has never needed to be one. The 24 types of kisses guide makes a better argument for it, and the neuroscience of closing your eyes explains why it holds your attention.

What about an orgasm on its own?

Small, brief and very variable. A 1984 paper wired ten healthy men through four kinds of sexual activity and found that peak effort arrived during the short spans of orgasm, then fell back to near baseline almost immediately (Arch Intern Med, 1984). Its authors went further and warned that variation between people and between activities was wide enough to make any single equivalent, "two flights of stairs" being the one they named, misleading. The New England Journal of Medicine built its 3 MET estimate for a stimulation and orgasm session, so the 21 kcal figure already covers solo sessions of similar length. For what the body is doing in those seconds, the second-by-second guide is the better read.

Can you lose weight this way?

No, and saying so is not a put-down. An average bout sits somewhere between 21 and 101 kcal depending on who is measuring and for how long, which is a rounding error against a day's intake. That is precisely why the New England Journal of Medicine filed the idea under obesity myths rather than under exercise advice (N Engl J Med, 2013). None of which makes sex pointless. The Montreal authors allowed that sexual activity "may potentially be considered, at times, as a significant exercise" (PLoS ONE, 2013), and that is about as far as the evidence stretches. The reasons to have sex were never on a calorie chart.

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MyMuse is an Indian sexual-wellness brand selling personal massagers, lubricants and intimacy products on mymuse.in and quick-commerce apps.

Written by Surya G., Team MyMuse