Lose weight, enjoy a better sex life – U.S. study

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Obese women who
start to lose weight will also see an improvement in the
quality of their sex lives, according to a U.S. study released
on Monday.

Even a moderate weight loss reduced complaints of feeling
sexually unattractive and led to improved desire, according to
the study presented at the annual meeting of The North American
Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) in Vancouver.

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

Researchers who tracked 161 obese women participating in a
prescription weight loss program in Minnesota 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.

The Minnesota weight loss program lasted for two years, but
health officials said it was normal for the majority of the
weight loss to be in the first year.

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

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.