It all started back in 2011 when a mysterious thread titled “When men don’t masturbate for seven days, their testosterone levels increase by 45.7%” emerged on Reddit.
The post was published by a group called NoFap, which challenges people to abstain from watching porn, having sex, or masturbating in an effort to “seize control of your sexuality and turn it into superpowers.” The thread then challenged readers to see how long they could go without pleasuring themselves, with participants being called “NoFappers” or “Fapstranourts.”
According to NoFap’s website, by abstaining from carnal behavior, a person can recover from “porn-induced sexual dysfunction” as well as enjoy heightened self-control, more hard-drive space, more free time, and an improved attitude.
The whole thing is supposed to be a joke. (Or at least we think so.) But more and more men seem to be taking it seriously, according to the blog Neon Nettle.
How about we take this to the next level?
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“First I thought ‘well this is a great way to get laid, because I’m like a girl magnet now,’ but then it just became ‘whatever… that’s not why I do this,'” Reddit user T_nyDubs writes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love getting laid, but primary motivation is me and fixing myself in my relationship with the world, not just some part of it.”
Reddit user killajoy714 claims that refraining from pleasuring himself has given him “insane confidence,” writing: “don’t give a f**k about what others think about you, easy to maintain eye contact, more respect from guys, more attention from girls, more strength and endurance in the gym, feel extremely happy and positive, brain is more efficient, less retrieval failure, clearer/brighter face and skin (cold showers and getting some sun), more productive, more energy, increased desire to study and learn, willpower increases significantly, easy to get rid of negative influences, and a deeper voice.”
One guy went so far as to post a six-minute video on YouTube gushing about how amazing the experience of not masturbating has been for him.
But according to Neon Nettle, the practice of “nofapping” is nothing new. In fact, records show the practice dating all the way back to antiquity, when athletes in ancient Greece abstained from sex before a big game, believing that sperm provided an added boost of strength necessary to win.
Napoleon Hill’s internationally bestselling self-help book Think and Grow Rich labels the practice of “nofapping” as “sex transmutation.” The theory behind it is that by not releasing one’s sexual energies through regular means (i.e. masturbation, sex, etc.), those same energies find alternative, more productive routes of escaping the body (i.e. projects at work, artistic endeavors, relationships, etc.).
Neon Nettle also cites the website Yourbrainonporn.com, an online resource that explores the relationship between x-rated videos and the human brain. The website suggests that watching too much hanky panky on your computer can lead to a slew of long-term health problems, including your brain being “rewired.”
What do you think? Could you go seven days without masturbating? And do you think your sexual energies would find other ways of escaping your body? Sound off in the comments section below.
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dommyluc
I call bullshit! It doesn’t matter if you go without sex or masturbation for an extended period of time; your body wants what it wants. If you do not have sexual release in one way or another, you will have a nocturnal emission (wet dream). Why do you think so many sons of those crazy RW Christianists freak out when they hit puberty after they wake up in the morning with a puddle of spooge on their stomach and think they have offended THE LAWD?!
Stache99
I knew someone that did that. I think he did it for months. Said it gave him more power or something.
Don’t think it would hurt to try it out for just a week though.
vigp177
I’m sorry but this is just stupid! Plenty of research has shown that regular male masturbation reduces the risk of prostate cancer and can help with a variety of depression related symptoms. Not to mention the fact that regular masturbation is completely normal, fun, and the only 100% safe sexual activity!
dvlaries
I can and have abstained that long, but it’s too reliable a sleep aid to get fanatical about it. You can bet they’d stop trying to guilt us about if they could find a way to tax it.
Cam
Or….um, they could go to the gym and actually lift weights which actually will help testosterone production and burn off stress.
But no, guess they’d rather make up crap to make themselves feel like they are actually accomplishing something.
Clark35
Another stupid “article” by queerty, first the one about how men who are intact get their genitals mutilated, and now one about how men don’t masturbate which is pure BS.
Billysees
@vigp177:
“…masturbation is completely normal, fun, and the only 100% safe sexual activity!”
How true…always satisfies too.
GG
I fully support men trying to refrain from masturbating. I know it can be difficult. Indeed, if a man is finding it particularly hard, I volunteer to come over and give him a helping hand.
scotshot
Where do they get this shit? These institutions are thinly veiled religious groups who are anti-porn and anti-sex. Anyone who believes this shit has a bigger problem with stupidity than a porn or masturbation”problem”.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
What a bunch of jerk offs…………….
Thomathy
Graham Gremore:
No, they’re not. At least, you haven’t provided any numbers to support ‘more and more’. How many? A few hundred idiots on a subreddit?
At least it’s interesting (if what counts as ‘interesting’ is a very low threshold) to know that people will believe some really stupid stuff.
What’s really
amazingdeeply creepy about this is that men who aren’t obviously sexually repressed teenagers in some fundy religious sect get together and chat about the virtues of not pleasuring themselves.newsflash
A few recent links to recovery accounts by gay men:
“Age 32 – Gay, More focus, harder dick”
http://www.yourbrainrebalanced.com/index.php?topic=27055.0
“Age 41 – Gay man – “Hard on really hard and stands up proud.” http://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/2u51qj/90_days_body_changes/
“Age 43 – How a gay man with a 20-year porn habit changed his life (ED)”
http://www.rebootnation.org/forum/index.php?topic=3328.msg33714#msg33714
” Age 22 – Gay man. ED: I was able to hook up and actually get an erection!”
http://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/2tnse0/60_days_and_feeling_fly/
Thomathy
Hey, newsflash: You owe me a new monitor; Punch lines usually come with a warning.
musctop
There’s always that pesky little fact–proven by the largest study of its kind in 2004 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that ejaculating at least 12 times a month lowers the risk of prostate cancer. So again, queerty, another total and unequivocal fail.
QJ201
Camping with family, no internet, no porn, no alone time. After 5 days I had my first wet dream as an adult.
Ladbrook
Well… if it was ON THE INTERNET it must be true. Right?
straightlyslanted
In a way i found that without masturbating for a SHORT time like two days does renew energy but longer tgan yhat and i climb the walls. It gets so bad that i can’t work or study. On addition it starts hurting down thete when semen accumulates.
Captain Obvious
Why does this need to be a group activity? If you don’t want to stroke your pickle then don’t stroke it. Not sure why it needs to be made a bigger deal than it really is.
Superpowers… really? More like frustration and erectile dysfunction.
onthemark
For the most part this idea is silly, but it might help porn addicts who are used to masturbating several times a day with the “death grip.” After a few years of that intense routine it becomes difficult for them to function sexually with a real person. …….. On the other hand (pun intended), maybe most of those “wankers” are happy enough & don’t really want to deal with real people anyway?
ramonromano
How many of these guys are also recently circumcised!?
blackberry finn
Suppression of the appetites for the sake of “disciplining the soul” is a throwback to medieval Christian rituals of mortification of the body, i.e., hating the body in order to elevate the spirit. Absolutely wrong-headed in 2015. Just as with eating, so with sex: our appetites– food satisfaction or sexual release (masturbation or with a partner or three)– are not, and never have been, harmful or evil. Guilt is the main issue here. If you want to save your energy for non-sexual productivity, that’s fine, but that’s different from saying that “too much fapping is bad”.
Sexual ascetism, like binge dieting, is stupid.
Stefano
@blackberry finn: exactly
Goforit
It has been suggested to me that I might benefit from a program like this. All because I have difficulty opening my zipper with my left hand but I can crush a VW with my right.
Mykaels
I have gone a week or so of abstaining to “reset” my brain when I find myself going to the porn sites a little too much. I have an insanely high sex drive, no boyfriend, and a demanding job, so its easy for me to masturbate, to porn, 3 or 4 times a day. When I find myself using porn as a substitute and not just a fun thing, I take a break and quit jerking off and watching porn for a week or two.
Does it give me super powers, more testosterone, more success, or more energy? LOL, no. I would rather keep porn as a healrthy fun habit and not an obsession.
Clark35
@ramonromano: Bwahaha exactly it’s funny when queerty posts BS articles like this one or the one where it claims that lots of men who are intact with a foreskin are suddenly deciding to mutilate their genitals.
jack512
I have it on good authority, my grandfather, that if a guy masturbates too much he will go blind.
Vegas Tearoom
A nocturnal emission is a way for the body to pleasantly rid itself of old semen. Put that in context with the medical data that supports the contention that an empty prostate is a happy, healthy prostate and you have a conundrum. As I have hard erections and solid orgasms, I will not venture into the dangerous area of INCREASING my T. Sorry, but I shall continue as a twice-a-dayer.
Billysees
@Mykaels:
“I would rather keep porn as a healthy fun habit and not an obsession.”
Good attitude.
Billysees
Here’s something from the Book that’ll easily apply here —
‘Blessed’ are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right……Romans 14:22
Take special note of the word ‘Blessed’.
You can think of it this way also —
Happy is the boy or girl or man or woman who do not condemn themselves for the things that they allow or approve of.
Substitute your own feelings and attitudes as a paraphrase of that verse.
Simply put, we don’t condemn ourselves because we are LGBT because we realize how good and fulfilling and happy this makes us be and then we can realize that this is the work of the ‘Spirit of God’ in us.
Berkleyguy
In addition to everything above, it also becomes a health issue. M need to ejaculate and frequently to keep the prostate healthy-to avoid enlarged prostate to the point of having to have surgery. The prostate becomes somewhat enlarged awe age anyway but avowing surgery is advised. Higher risks of prostate cancer have been also noted in men who ejaculate infrequently. My doctor says at least twice a week and more cannot hurt you.
footwork61
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes where invented to help prevent boys from masturbating. They didn’t work so grea-a-a-a-at!