Oxytocin is the stuff that keeps people together. Whenever we start feeling frisky, by kissing or touching, it’s the oxytocin hormone (also known as the “love hormone”) that propels us. Then, when we have sex and have an orgasm, even more oxytocin is released. It is, by far, the most exhilarating hormone in our body. It also can help with obesity, too, according to a new study. Well, obesity in men; women not so much. The study found that oxytocin has some pretty fantastic effects on the male metabolism.
Apparently it can “reduce caloric intake and appetite and alter levels of appetite-regulating hormones.” So, not only are men burning more calories than us during sex, 100 calories to our 69, but the oxytocin that’s being released during the whole thing is also helping to keep the weight of men under control, which, in a world where the “dad bod” is a thing, seems fairly pointless … so here’s hoping there’s at least one man left on earth who doesn’t want to succumb to the dad bod look, I suppose.
The conclusions were met after the 25 participants were given double portions of a breakfast meal of their choice (someone sign me up!) and a single dose of intranasal oxytocin. The men were then asked to rest, or at least that’s why I’ve deduced because their resting energy was what was measured, and ― voila! ― good things happened. It was confirmed that calorie intake was reduced, and the oxytocin made all those nasty carbs shift into fat that could be used and it improved the guys’ sensitivity to insulin, which, as we all know (right?) is important, because if your insulin levels are off, your metabolism is whacked and you’re suddenly signing up to be the fattest person in the Guinness Book of World Records. Not quite, but you see where I’m going with this.
Again, at least according to the study, this healthy behavior on the part of oxytocin is only happening in men. However, in this writer’s humble opinion, that shouldn’t deter women from trying to see if oxytocin can have the same effect on us. And the only way we can do such a thing, since last I checked you can’t get intranasal oxytocin at Duane Reade, is by having lots and lots of sex. If you could be stepping up your calorie reduction by having even more sex than you do, why wouldn’t you? In you can reduce your calories by double, then you can double your pizza intake and that’s really what calorie burning is all about: Just making more space for more pizza. See, ladies? We can have it all.
Images: Elena Signorini/Flickr; Giphy(1)
