OK... Let's Just Talk About It....

i couldnt imagine logging sex in just so i could shovel more food into my mouth.

ugh.. gross.

She was just asking a question...your answer is quite rude.

Maybe as squats or lunges... if... oh, hmmm, you know.

If it brings your calories to a deficit between your bmr and tdee, and isn't already accounted for in your daily activity, then log it. Wear an hrm, or if you don't have one, take a look at the clock before and after. Don't overestimate the timing and log it under something similar in exercise intensity.

I don't understand the reasoning of "if you had sex (or cleaned your house, etc.) before you were trying to lose weight, it doesn't count as an exercise." People were not eating at a deficit then as they are trying to do now. The type of activity is irrelevant as long as it is accounted for in activity either as daily routine or an exercise, and the calorie deficit is present. You don't have to wear the brightest coloured running shoes and have a gym membership to lose weight.

http://www.mydr.com.au/tools/calories-burned-calculator

If you're in the US, you'll have to convert your weight to kilograms and your height to centimetres, but it does have three different options for sex: light, moderate or vigorous effort.

Using my stats (168cm, 70.9kg), light effort for 15 mins equated to a 16 calorie burn, moderate effort equated to a 21 calorie burn and vigorous effort equated to a 24 calorie burn.

24 over 15 mins calories during vigorous? They aren't doing it right.

Just going to throw out there that a HRM may not be the most accurate way to measure this.
Heart rate is not directly related to calories burned. There is a relationship between heart rate and calories burned during moderate intensity steady state cardio. While there is an increase in heart rate during sex that is due to effort, there are other reasons for elevated heart rate that is not which would likely cause a higher reading.
I'm a numbers nut, this is just one area I prefer not to think about in those terms.

http://www.mydr.com.au/tools/calories-burned-calculator

If you're in the US, you'll have to convert your weight to kilograms and your height to centimetres, but it does have three different options for sex: light, moderate or vigorous effort.

Using my stats (168cm, 70.9kg), light effort for 15 mins equated to a 16 calorie burn, moderate effort equated to a 21 calorie burn and vigorous effort equated to a 24 calorie burn.

24 over 15 mins calories during vigorous? They aren't doing it right.

Must be close. I watched one of those doctor doco things on TV, and they reckon you burn about 200 calories a year having sex 2 - 3 times per week. Personally, I don't see it as exercise because, you know, not staying in the same position and all...

Then again, as some people have mentioned, a HRM would really be the only way to tell how many calories were burned, but that goes for any exercise.

... now I have to buy a HRM. Must prove calorie per 15 mins wrong!

i couldnt imagine logging sex in just so i could shovel more food into my mouth.

ugh.. gross.

B i t c h.

Yep!

OP- I personally don't log it but if I did, I would say it to log it as cardio or aerobic. Sorry for all the **** people are giving you for asking,

Should I log it if I'm alone when it happens?

These archer gifs are cracking me up!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/816645-sexercise-count-cals-or-not

I was just thinking about this the other day.. mostly out of curiosity and MFP doesn't have sex as an activity (my friend uses the app lose it and apparently they have sex as exercise). Honestly if you wanna log sex, log sex but not unless it legit feels like a workout but I don't think a 15 min session is worth logging in (unless you did it in the back of a small car.. that takes a lot of work.. so I've heard.. lol). But my diary is viewable to my friends so even if MFP allowed me to I wouldn't log sex for privacy reasons.

There's been a lot talk about what should count as exercise and what shouldn't count as exercise. I do a lot of walking during my M-F routine. I don't have a car so I walk to the bus, train, work, etc etc.. all this adds up to about 50-68 min of walking per day. I only count the walking I do outdoors even though once I'm indoors I do more walking plus a lot of walking up and down stairs since I gave up using the elevator (I work with kids so I can but stationary 1 min and walking around the school the next minute).. but I don't count how many flights I go up that's just too much. I count all the outdoor walking I do as exercise because I intentionally walk faster when I step outside & I'm breathing heavier by the time I get to where I wanted to get to. I don't log the rest because I can't type in how many flights I up go up and down throughout the day just how many minutes I do it, which I'm not about to keep track of. Also I like knowing that even after I've tracked the walking and it says something like 300 calories I know with all I did that day it's actually more than that. And if I have a 400-500 cal deficit that day I feel really good cause it's probably higher.

In short, I really do believe to each their own... if you feel like sex feels like a workout then logged it and if you feel like sex shouldn't be counted as a workout.. don't log it! I don't judge, we're all here to achieve the same thing.. get healthy and lose weight so let's do it!

Good luck to all of you on your journey!

This is funny to me. My boyfriend and I started tracking on here at the same time. We both want to be healthy, loose a little weight, and be fitter. Once you start paying attention to what your body is doing, this seems like a natural question. He bought a heart rate monitor, and the second thing he said to me about it was: "Can I wear it during sex!?"

We are both scientists we wanted to know; how many calories do I burn on top, how many calories do you burn on top, how many calories do we burn standing up in the shower? These seemed like perfectly natural questions to me.

When you've completed your research, will you post the results? I know a lot of people who would be interested. :laugh:

Same goes for house cleaning, if it makes you sweat...It's good and it should count.

That's actually a good rule of thumb, I think. I mean, I clean every day--but I don't scrub the floors (and I do SCRUB the floors, on hands and knees) every day, so when I do, I log it as "cleaning", but even if I think it might be "vigorous", I only log the "light", because it's more about the actual work my body is doing and making sure that I'm using various muscle groups, than it is about eating back calories. I very rarely do that. If my body tells me I'm hungry after a workout, sure I'll eat back *some*, but hardly ever do I actually eat back all of my calories.

I climb stairs multiple times a day, because we're on a second floor apartment. But I don't log "stair-climbing" every time. I include that in my activity level, along with wrestling with children (though it would be hilarious to see that on the database!), carrying a toddler (up and down those same stairs), vacuuming, folding laundry, etc. But even though I don't have sex every day, I don't think I would log it, just because I'm not sure exactly how to calculate the actual effort that I, personally, put into the activity. I'd just consider it a "bonus". In a few ways.

Point being, not everyone logs just so they can eat. For some of us, it's about self-accountability and seeing what your body is actually doing. Making sure that you're doing something every day to make yourself stronger, and to be more active, more fit. It's not necessarily "just" about being able to eat more or "tricking" the system to let yourself gorge. I think for a lot of people, this site is a way to be more self-aware and conscious with what we put into our bodies--and what we exert as well. Sure, taking a quick walk around the block for 10 mins may only "earn" me 60 cals, but that's not important to me. What's important is that I moved and I was active, and did something that was not part of my daily routine.

I used to log it (and it's the reason why I made my exercise notifications private for my friends list :laugh: ) but I wouldn't bother anymore. I can see if it's particularly strenuous, or if it lasts 45+ minutes at a decent->high intensity. But otherwise, nah.

Sex is part of my daily activity level and that's already accounted for in MFP's calculations, ...

Well, go you!

And wow to the people logging 45 minute sessions! <sigh> I remember those days....

[slowly backing out of this thread]