Let’s get personal for a minute.
Let’s talk about sex.
A study recently published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy says that obese men and women are significantly less sexually satisfied than the general population. Talk about a big hit to quality of life.
We see the ED commercials all the time, so we know that for at least half the population something isn’t going well physically. Diseases related to obesity, like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, effect the body’s ability to perform normal and healthy sexual functions. Nothing in those ED commercials mentions the cause, being overweight, but instead just gives us another pill to treat the symptom. Treating the symptom might help in the short term with the mechanical problem. However it doesn’t address the real problem or the satisfaction issue.
While obesity and its related health complications can affect sexual function in a negative way, I think it’s more than that.
The most important sex organ is the brain. When we don’t feel sexy, when aren’t happy with our self image, we aren’t confident or comfortable. If we look in the mirror and don’t love what we see, it inhibits us. I’m not saying that means you have to have the body of an adult movie star (which isn’t real anyway) but we need to be comfortable in our own skin.
Some might argue that means learning to love your body, no matter the size and shape. I say it means creating a shape that makes you feel good. One that you know is strong and capable. One that has curves created by presses and curls, not a scalpel. It comes from a body with energy to spare because the heart and lungs are working at peak efficiency from regular exercise and with muscles that are strong from the healthy foods you eat each day. Loving your body enough to care for it and nourish it properly means you love yourself enough to love someone else too.
I’m a personal trainer, not a sex therapist, but I believe that getting healthy and fit physically is a requirement for a healthy sex life.
