Pornhub Is Changing the Game for Overweight Porn Watchers
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Never one to let a good marketing opportunity go to waste, Pornhub have developed an app that it claims will fight America's obesity epidemic.
On Wednesday, the online porn giant launched "BangFit," which purports to hone the physical benefits of sex by capitalizing on the countless hours people already spend watching porn.
Pornhub's vice president, Corey Price, said in a statement that encouraging people to take part in "sexercise" is a easy workaround to busy lifestyles that leave little time for working out.
"Here at Pornhub, we know from experience that there's one activity people are always motivated to do and one for which they are never too busy. That's getting busy," Price said.
The 1980s-inspired "workout" program involves strapping a smartphone to your waist (purchase of a special belt is required), then choosing from a number of routines on the BangFit website. Your phone's gyroscope and accelerometer measures your performance and gives you a rating.
Obviously, you don't need an elastic band, a smart phone, or porn to get a workout in bed — you're probably already doing fine.
PornHub's pitch is simply encouraging more of the same (which works out for them, of course, by driving more visitors to their site). Since the website's business model is reliant on mostly solitary activity, they even have a routine for single players.
Americans could use the extra nudge, too.
Fewer than 5 percent of adults get 30 minutes of daily physical activity, and only a third of adults get the recommended amount of weekly physical activity, according to federal health statistics. Meanwhile, more than 2 in 3 U.S. adults are considered either overweight or obese — and things aren't looking any better for future generations.
Bangfit, apparently, operates on the premise that people will be more likely to have sex once made aware of the act's physical benefits.
Each of the routines the site promotes provides the average calorie burn rate for both genders:
Pornhub/BangFit - bang.fit
"Did you know that 30 minutes of sex is equivalent to a three-mile bike ride?" the site asks. "And that you burn two hot dogs’ worth of calories in the process? Well with BangFit, you can have your wieners and eat them too."
Indeed.
Still, while sex is one way to get in a daily (if we're being optimistic)workout, there's research to suggest that you're probably better off just going for a jog. A recent study published in PLOS One showed that a 25 minute sex session burned 101 calories for men, and 69 calories for women, while a thirty minute jog netted 276 calories burned in men and 213 for women. Most sex, however, is probably shorter in length, and burns far fewer calories, one 2013 study found.
