Want to get sexy? lose some weight!

Oct 18 2005

According to a new study, obese women who start to lose weight will also see an improvement in the quality of their sex lives.

Apparently even a moderate weight loss saw a reduction of complaints of feeling sexually unattractive and led to improved desire.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) in Vancouver.

Martin Binks, director of behavioral health at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, North Carolina, says that if people experience benefits and rewards from their weight loss and health efforts, it may motivate them to continue a healthy lifestyle.

In the study researchers tracked 161 obese women participating in a prescription weight loss program in Minnesota and found almost two-thirds reported problems with aspects of their sex life when the study began.

Within the first year, the percentage of women who said they had problems with sexual desire dropped to 15 percent from 39 percent, and the number who felt they were sexually unattractive dropped to 26 percent from 68 percent.

Although the Minnesota weight loss program lasted for two years, health experts say it is normal for the majority of the weight loss to be in the first year.

According to the researchers similar results were found in a survey of 26 obese men in the Minnesota weight-loss program, but they caution that the small number of male participants in the study made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions from the data.

Many health officials say there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in North America in the past two decades, and 64 percent of adults in the United States are considered to be overweight or obese.