Burn extra calories without dieting! You just need to kiss passionately!!!!
Kiss Me, You Fool
Among the benefits of a good wet one: That extra saliva washes bacteria off your teeth, which can help break down oral plaque, says Mathew Messina, DDS, a private practice dentist in Fairview Park, Ohio, and consumer advisor for the American Dental Association. “Still, I would not go around advocating kissing after meals instead of brushing,” he says.
A serious, tongue-tangling French kiss exercises all the underlying muscles of the face — which some say could keep you looking younger, and certainly looking happier.
Kissing might even help you lose weight, says Bryant Stamford, PhD, professor and director of the health promotion center at the University of Louisville. “During a really, really passionate kiss, you might burn two calories a minute — double your metabolic rate,” he says. (This compares to 11.2 calories per minute you burn jogging on a treadmill.)
“But if your motivation for kissing is to burn calories, you’re in trouble,” Stamford points out.
When you give sugar, you actually burn sugar. Sex sparks a good calorie burn, Stamford says, especially “if you’re passionately involved, thrashing around. If things were really hot and heavy, you might be looking at a caloric expenditure similar to a brisk walk.”
But don’t confuse great sex with a cardiovascular workout, he says.
“People tend to have the misconception that anything that raises your heart rate has the same effect as jogging, so it must be good for fitness. Not true,” he says. “Anything can get your heart racing … that’s just adrenaline.”
Kissing as Meditation
Tension relief — that’s what good lovin’ brings, says Stamford. “Sex and love are probably the Rodney Dangerfield of stress management. Because of all the negative energy we take in during the day, it’s a very positive benefit.”
All in all, kissing and everything it engenders keeps us going strong, living long, says Stamford. “The process of being active — and that can include kissing, sex, and any other whole-body activities — that’s what keeps you healthy.”
Sex, sensuality, and sensual touch have profound effects on well-being, says Joy Davidson, PhD, psychologist and clinical sexologist in Seattle, and former columnist for an online column called “Underwire.”
“Kissing is an exciting excursion into the sensual,” Davidson tells WebMD. “If we happen to be connecting with someone we care about, it produces a sense of well-being and a kind of full-bodied pleasure.”
Kissing is also “a sensual meditation,” she says. “It stops the buzz in your mind, it quells anxiety, and it heightens the experience of being present in the moment. It actually produces a lot of the physiological changes that meditation produces.”
And while kissing may be nature’s way of “opening the door to the sexual experience,” she says, “it also has all that lusciousness that we need to pull us out of the mundane and the ordinary and take us into moments of the extraordinary.”
What’s So Great About Kissing
Finally, something that feels good that’s not bad for you. In fact, say our lip service experts, laying a big wet one on the right partner can be downright good for your health.
Nov. 12, 2001 — Faith Hill has it right — a great kiss makes the world dissolve, makes us dizzy with desire.
“Kissing is passion and romance and what keeps people together,” says William Michael Cane, author of The Art of Kissing, who “lectures” on kissing at colleges around the country.
“Women say they can tell if a relationship is going to work after the first kiss, after the first night of kissing,” he says. “They just get a feeling, an intuition.”
And while kissing may feel oh-so-good, it also has health benefits, too. It triggers a whole spectrum of physiological processes that boost your immunity and generally spruce up that body you work so hard to keep attractive.