I think I speak for many when I say that I find most forms of exercise really boring. I go along to the gym, jump on the treadmill and within five minutes I’m so bored I’ve counted the number of cracks in the walls. Let’s face it, if you’re at the gym whether you on the treadmill, cross trainer or rowing machine it’s boring. Fact.

So what’s the answer? Well we’ve all heard those rumours. You know the ones; a fifteen minute sex session is the equivalent of a 2 mile run. Sounds good in theory, after all the majority of the population enjoy sex and do it without too much encouragement. So imagine if it were true, what a breakthrough. Imagine the headlines on the front of ones of those gossip mags “A-list celebs bonking like bunnies to stay thin!”

So is there actually any truth in these rumours? Is sex really a viable replacement for conventional forms of exercise?

Let’s look at some of the more conventional methods of exercise to see just how many calories are burnt. First and foremost of course is the gym rat’s favourite running. Well if you’re an average sized guy of 160 Lb and you run for an hour covering a distance of 6 miles you would have burnt an impressive 726 calories. Sounds a lot and to be fair it is a fair amount of calories, fairly depressing though when you consider that a 100g mars bar contains over 500 calories!

Ok so how about swimming. Generally considered to be one of the best all round forms of exercise. It’s great in that it works the majority of the muscles in your body without placing excessive pressure on your body’s muscles and structure. But just how many calories do you burn? If you swim continuously for an hour you’ll burn a whopping 470 calories.

On to something more relaxing. Yoga isn’t necessarily taken seriously as a form of exercise but is great for increasing flexibility and muscle tone but is it a viable form of exercise and just how many calories does it burn. When you consider that practitioners of yoga spend most of their time in one spot typically standing still it’s somewhat surprising that they can still burn 250 calories an hour.

So how does sex compare? Of course, if you listen to most guys in the local bar they’ll tell you that their average sex session lasts at least eight hours and in this period they can perform the sexual act a dozen times. So lets say for arguments sake your that average 160lb guy, you can manage an hour of vigorous sex after which your completely shattered and covered in sweat. You would have burnt a completely underwhelming 115 calories.

So there’s your answer is sex really a viable alternative to conventional forms of exercise? Well erm no! You’d need to have sex for five or six hours before your burning anywhere near the number of calories you’d have burnt during traditional forms of exercise. Now that’s sounds like a lot of hard work, but then wouldn’t it be fun and I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be counting the number of cracks on the wall.