Why weight gain won’t ruin your sex life

LONDON: After gaining a few pounds, many women feel less confident in the bedroom.

But it is a lack of self-esteem that threatens to ruin their sex life rather than the weight they have put on.

Research shows it is how happy a woman is with her body image that’s most important when it comes to her sexual self-confidence.

A study of more than 500 women found putting on weight in itself will not make them start to avoid or worry about sex.

The most important factor, translating into confidence in bed, was how happy they felt about their face, including their lips, eyes and smile, researchers found.

The areas women tended to feel most insecure about were their thighs, stomach, legs, hips and bottom.

The study, published in the journal, Sexologies, states that how women see themselves is a “crucial dimension” of how confident they are in bed.

The authors wrote: “This seems to indicate that women’s sexual self-esteem depends more on the way in which they consider their body and their own power of attractiveness, than on their actual weight or body mass index.”

Women have been under more pressure to be slim since the 1960s, with many feeling this makes them more desirable.

The researchers at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium say theirs is the first study to seriously examine how body image affects sex.

They analysed the link between weight and sexual self-esteem in women aged 18 to 80, of whom almost a third were overweight or obese.

They found no link between body mass index and confidence in bed, defined as “one’s ability to engage in – rather than avoid – sexual experiences”.

However the way women rated themselves on a scale from “physically attractive” to “not physically attractive” was important when asked about their sexual confidence. – Daily Mail