Sex may not technically count as your workout for the day — but if it did, how many calories would you burn? Out of personal curiosity, I commissioned my Fitbit Versa and my boyfriend, who was obviously more than enthusiastic to take one for the team. The results surprised us both. Spoiler: I didn't burn nearly as many calories as I originally predicted, but I did get some quality cardio in.

Among the seven exercise modes available on my device, I selected "Workout" since none of the other options were really suitable for this type of physical activity. It's also important to note that tracking excluded foreplay [1] and that I only hit start once the real action started. We tested it out on three separate occasions — you know, for a controlled experiment — and averaged the time, number of calories burned, and beats per minute.

Results

Average time: 13.84 minutes
Average number of calories burned: 64 calories
Average BPM: 131 beats per minute

Now, before you begin judging my sexual performance, average "finish" times around the world [2] range from 15 to 17 minutes at best. Again, this data doesn't include all the fun leading up to intercourse.

Overall, woman-on-top positions [3] resulted in the highest number of calories burned during my sexperiment as expected. During sexercise number three, I burned 80 calories (five calories per minute) compared to sexercise number one when I burned only 60 calories (four calories per minute) during missionary and doggy style. Both occasions were also close to each other in time; around 15 minutes. But you also have to keep in mind that fitness trackers aren't always the most accurate [4]. Certain activities, including strength training, are more difficult to detect than others, so it's safe to say that sex is probably a foreign category for your wearable.

To give you a better idea of where my results stand, a study conducted at the University of Montreal [5] found that men on average will burn 100 calories during a 30-minute session, while ladies burn only 69 — and this includes foreplay. The discrepancy is due to the weight difference between men and women, as heavier weight equals more energy spent.

Before going into this, I had expected to burn at least 100 calories each time. I was especially confident in sexercise number three when I burned the highest number of calories because I, well, put in work. But even after that strenuous and sweaty session, I had only peaked at 80. Sure, it's not enough to classify as a workout — but I'd much rather burn calories in the bedroom than at the gym.