NoFap is now one of the largest self-help communities online: r/NoFap had about 1.3 million members in October 2026, about 11.2 times the 116,000 it had in 2014 (our calculation), according to the GummySearch subreddit tracker and Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths.
The research behind it is much smaller. One of the few randomized trials of quitting porn followed 176 university students, mostly women, for just 7 days, and the most-shared benefit, a testosterone spike on day 7, comes from a study that was retracted in 2021.
In this article, we’ll break down who tries to quit, what studies show about the benefits, how long attempts really last, the risks, and which popular claims don’t hold up.
Top Statistics on NoFap and Quitting Porn
- r/NoFap had about 1.3 million members in 2026, about 11.2 times its 2014 size.
- 64.2% of men in a Reddit survey had tried abstaining from masturbation at least once.
- In a 7-day quit trial of mostly female students, 45% used porn at least once, and the trial found no withdrawal effects versus controls.
- The median reboot attempt in 104 forum journals lasted 36.5 days, and 52.9% of members lapsed at least once.
- The “testosterone rises 45% on day 7” claim comes from a 2003 study retracted in 2021.
- 28.9% of surveyed men who had tried a reboot and relapsed felt suicidal because of their most recent relapse.
- Acceptance and commitment therapy cut porn viewing by 92% in a small trial.
How Many People Try to Quit Porn?
Trying to quit is common. 64.2% of 1,063 men recruited on Reddit had tried abstaining from masturbation at least once, according to Zimmer & Imhoff (2020), and 51% of Polish university students who watch porn had tried to quit, per Dwulit & Rzymski (2019).
Among men who had sought or considered help for their porn use, 74% had tried to quit at least once and 39% had tried four or more times, according to Kraus et al. (2017).
Sources: Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths, Straub & Schmidt, Perin & Ferrero Camoletto, GummySearch
Here’s a breakdown of how large the quitting communities are:
| Community | Members | Date |
|---|---|---|
| r/NoFap (Reddit) | About 1.3 million | October 2026 |
| r/pornfree (Reddit) | About 424,000 | October 2026 |
| NoFap.com forum | 374,374 | October 2026 |
| Reboot Nation forum | About 24,000 | c. 2024 |
| r/pornfreewomen (Reddit) | About 13,000 | 2023 |
r/NoFap has grown about 11.2 times since 2014, from 116,000 members to about 1.3 million (our calculation); 2020 was its biggest year of growth, according to The Hive Index.
The communities are overwhelmingly male. About 5% of NoFap users are women, per an estimate cited by Zhang & Silva, and No Nut November reaches teens: 57% of past participants in a 2023 survey first took part before age 18, according to Garas, Levang & Pukall.
Why People Quit Porn
Most people quit because they feel addicted. In 104 abstinence journals on a reboot forum, 70.2% of members started because of perceived addiction and 42.3% because of sexual problems they blamed on porn, mostly erectile problems, according to Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths (2021).
Only 3.8% gave moral disapproval as a reason in that study. But beliefs matter: in Zimmer & Imhoff’s survey, the strongest correlate of wanting to abstain was believing masturbation is unhealthy (r = 0.41), while orgasm frequency itself wasn’t linked.
Here’s a breakdown of reasons for quitting:
| Reason | Share | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Felt addicted to porn | 70.2% | 104 reboot forum members |
| Joined to regain the ability to interact with women | 75% | NoFap’s own survey (advocacy, c. 2012) |
| Sexual problems blamed on porn | 42.3% | 104 reboot forum members |
| Psychosocial consequences | 29.8% | 104 reboot forum members |
| Moral disapproval | 3.8% | 104 reboot forum members |
NoFap Benefits: What Research Shows
The evidence for benefits is thin and mostly self-reported. In the reboot journals, 24% of members reported better mood, energy, clarity or confidence, while 28.8% described withdrawal-like symptoms, and close to a third reported a loss of libido, or “flatline,” per Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths.
Half of the members with erection problems (21 of 42) reported some improvement. That’s a self-report from people still on the forum, without a medical measure.
The few experiments are small. In a non-randomized study, 21 single men who abstained from porn and masturbation for 3 weeks reported less mental fatigue (d = 0.82) and more self-control (d = 0.7) than controls, per Straub & Schmidt (2022), but only 21 of 62 starters, or 34% (our calculation), made it into the final analysis.
Here’s a breakdown of claimed benefits and the evidence:
| Claimed Benefit | Best Evidence | What It Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Higher testosterone | Jiang et al. (2003), 28 men | Retracted in 2021; two small crossover trials found testosterone equal or higher with masturbation |
| More energy, less fatigue | Straub & Schmidt (2022), 21 men | Less fatigue after 3 weeks; not randomized, many dropouts |
| More self-control | Negash et al. (2016), 37 people | 3 weeks without porn lowered delay discounting; a small later thesis replication found no effect |
| Stronger relationship commitment | Lambert et al. (2012), 20 people | Those who kept using porn reported lower commitment than controls; very small sample |
| Better erections | Reboot journals; 5-trial meta-analysis | Half of men with ED reported improvement; 5 trials of therapy for problematic porn use found no significant drop in sexual dysfunction |
| Better ejaculatory control | Palmieri et al. (2012), 120 men | 10 days of abstinence before sex worsened ejaculatory control |
| No withdrawal | Fernandez et al. (2023), 176 people | No withdrawal, craving or mood effects over 7 days |
NoFap’s own early survey of about 1,500 members reported that 67% had more energy at work, according to iFanr. That figure is self-selected, self-reported and comes from the community itself.
Does NoFap Increase Testosterone?
There’s no good evidence that it does. The widely shared claim that testosterone rises about 45% after 7 days without ejaculation comes from a 2003 study of 28 men that was retracted in 2021, and Snopes rates the claim false.
A 3-week abstinence study of 10 men found higher testosterone afterward but gave no size for the change, per Exton et al. (2001). Newer crossover trials of 8 and 21 men, which measured hormones around a single session rather than after days of abstinence, found testosterone was the same or higher after masturbating, according to Isenmann et al. and Fernández-Lázaro et al.
Regular ejaculation is linked to some benefits. In a cohort of 31,925 men (3,839 prostate cancer cases), those who ejaculated 21 or more times a month in their 40s had about 22% lower risk than those at 4–7 times (hazard ratio 0.78, our calculation), according to Rider et al. (2016). For couples trying to conceive, a 2026 review recommends ejaculating every 1–2 days in its abstract (every 1–3 days in its conclusion), per Clay et al.
The newer trials agree with older lab work: none of the studies on whether masturbation lowers testosterone found a drop.
NoFap Timeline: What the Data Show
Most attempts last weeks, not months. The median reboot attempt in 104 forum journals lasted 36.5 days, 52.0% lasted 7–30 days, and only 26.9% passed 3 months (our calculation), according to Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths.
Lapses are the norm. 55 of 104 members, or 52.9% (our calculation), reported at least one lapse, and in a 7-day randomized trial, 45% of people asked to quit used porn at least once, per Fernandez et al. (2023).
Here’s a breakdown of what research shows at each stage:
| Stage | What The Data Show | Source |
|---|---|---|
| First 7 days | No withdrawal, craving or mood effects versus controls; 45% used porn at least once | Fernandez et al. (2023), 176 students, mostly women |
| First 10 days | People with compulsive sexual behavior reported fewer, not more, withdrawal symptoms | Sassover et al. (2024), 30 people |
| First 2 weeks | 35% reported strong urges | NoFap’s own survey (advocacy, c. 2012) |
| 2–6 weeks | 30% said urges began to ease | NoFap’s own survey (advocacy, c. 2012) |
| 3 weeks | About 48% of study completers fully abstained from porn and masturbation | Straub & Schmidt (2022), 44 completers |
| About 5 weeks | Median length of a reboot attempt (36.5 days) | Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths (2021) |
| 3+ months | 26.9% of reboot attempts lasted this long | Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths (2021) |
No study has tracked a “90-day reboot” from start to finish. NoFap itself says typical abstinence periods run “around seven to ninety days,” per its About page, and forum users in one survey thought men should abstain for 42 days on average, according to Prause & Binnie.
Why Relapses Happen
Emotions are the most common trigger. In a 2015 survey of r/NoFap members, emotional reasons made up 27% of all coded relapse explanations, and within those, boredom accounted for 20% and being alone or lonely 21%, according to Rackham (2020).
Heavy users feel least able to resist in specific moments. Men watching 4 or more times a week rated their confidence to avoid porn at 23.3 out of 100 when sexually excited and 27.5 when alone at home, versus 52.0 when alone at home for men watching weekly or less, per Kraus et al.
Risks and Downsides of NoFap
Relapse can hit hard. 28.9% of surveyed men who had tried a reboot and relapsed felt suicidal because of their most recent relapse, and more NoFap involvement correlated with more shame at relapse (ρ = 0.27) and more depression (ρ = 0.18), according to a survey by Prause & Binnie (2023).
The forums carry their own risks. 73.7% of forum visitors in the same survey had seen misogynistic content, and 23.5% reported seeing posts telling users to harm or kill themselves. The lead author is a prominent NoFap critic, and the findings are correlational.
Advice online is often poor. Semen retention videos on TikTok had more than 1.2 billion views, none were posted by physicians, and they scored lowest for accuracy of the six men’s health topics studied, according to Dubin et al. (preprint).
What Helps People Quit
Structured therapy has the best evidence, though trials are small. Twelve sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy cut porn viewing by 92% after treatment and 86% at 3 months, according to Crosby & Twohig (28 men); full cessation fell from 54% to 35% over those 3 months.
Self-help programs struggle with engagement. An online program, Hands-off, reduced problematic use with a large effect (d = 1.32), but 89.4% of participants dropped out of the program arm, per Bőthe et al.
Here’s a breakdown of treatment and recovery evidence:
| Finding | Result | Population |
|---|---|---|
| ACT: reduction in porn viewing | 92% after treatment, 86% at 3 months | 26 treated men (28 randomized) |
| ACT: stopped completely | 54% after treatment, 35% at 3 months | 26 treated men |
| Hands-off online program | Large reduction (d = 1.32), 89.4% dropout | 264 people, randomized trial |
| “Recovery” vs chronic course | 11.68% vs 3.55% | 1,182 Israeli adults, 2018–2022 |
| Ever sought treatment | 4–10% | People at risk of problematic use, 42 countries |
Many people improve over time. In an Israeli community sample, about 3.3 times as many people followed a “recovery” course for compulsive sexual behavior or problematic porn use as a chronic one (our calculation), per Efrati et al.
NoFap Myths: Popular Claims Checked
The most shared NoFap claim is that testosterone jumps 45% on day 7. The study behind it, Jiang et al. (2003), was retracted in 2021, and no replicated study shows a lasting testosterone gain from abstinence.
Here’s how popular claims compare with the research:
| Popular Claim | What The Research Shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| “Testosterone rises 45% on day 7” | From a 28-man study retracted in 2021 | Unsupported |
| “A 90-day reboot resets your brain” | No study has tested 90 days; median attempt was 36.5 days | No evidence |
| “Everyone goes through withdrawal” | No withdrawal effects in 7-day and 10-day studies; 28.8% of rebooters described withdrawal-like symptoms | Overstated |
| “Retention cures premature ejaculation” | 10 days of abstinence worsened ejaculatory control in a 120-man trial | Contradicted |
| “Retention boosts fertility” | Sperm quality declines after about 10 days of abstinence | Contradicted |
| “NoFap gives you superpowers” | Best study: 21 men, non-randomized, less fatigue after 3 weeks | Weak evidence |
How We Compiled These Statistics
We used peer-reviewed studies, randomized trials, systematic reviews and community data. Reddit membership counts come from a third-party tracker, and NoFap’s own survey figures come from press coverage; we label both.
Most research on quitting porn is small, short and self-selected. Several sources have known stances: Prause is a prominent NoFap critic, NoFap’s survey is advocacy, and the Lambert and Negash summaries come via Culture Reframed (an anti-porn group) and a master’s thesis.
Shares, ratios and the prostate risk reduction are our own calculations.
Key Takeaways
Quitting porn is popular: r/NoFap has about 1.3 million members and 64.2% of men in one Reddit survey had tried abstaining from masturbation.
The research is thin. The median reboot in one study lasted 36.5 days, 45% of people used porn during a 7-day quit trial, and the best-known benefit, a testosterone spike, comes from a retracted study.
Self-reported benefits are real for some people, but so are risks: 28.9% of surveyed men who relapsed after a reboot felt suicidal because of it. If cutting back feels impossible or distressing, a therapist experienced in sexual health is a better bet than willpower alone.
FAQ
What are the benefits of NoFap?
Self-reported benefits include better mood, energy and confidence (24% of rebooters in one study) and improved erections (half of those with erection problems). Controlled evidence is limited to small studies, such as 21 men who reported less fatigue after 3 weeks without porn and masturbation.
What is the NoFap timeline?
There’s no research-based timeline. In 104 reboot journals, the median attempt lasted 36.5 days, 52.0% lasted 7–30 days, and 26.9% passed 3 months. A 7-day trial of mostly female students found no withdrawal effects, and close to a third of rebooters reported a “flatline.”
Does NoFap increase testosterone?
There’s no reliable evidence. The study behind the “45% on day 7” claim was retracted in 2021, and newer small trials found testosterone was the same or higher after masturbating.
How long does it take to quit porn?
It varies widely, and most people lapse along the way. 52.9% of rebooters in one study lapsed at least once, and 39% of men who had considered help had tried to quit four or more times.
Is NoFap healthy?
Cutting back on porn can help people who feel their use is out of control, but strict abstinence isn’t required for health. 28.9% of surveyed men who relapsed after a reboot felt suicidal because of it, and ejaculating regularly is linked to lower prostate cancer risk.
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