Credit where it is due. NoFap broke a silence, and the specific thing it got right, mutual support from people who understand, is the specific thing the research supports.
A qualitative analysis of 104 rebooting abstinence journals found that abstinence felt impossible at first and became attainable with cognitive-behavioural strategies and social support. That is self-report only, but it is a consistent pattern.
The rest of the package is a different story. The day-counts, the "rewiring" timelines, the superpowers: none of it was ever studied. The flatline is consistently reported and has never been measured prospectively or in a general population. The testosterone claim rests on Jiang and colleagues' 2003 study of 28 men, retracted in 2021. The systematic review of abstinence across six behaviours found promise for porn use while noting rebound effects had barely been measured.
And the culture carries a cost. A preregistered survey of men in reboot communities found perceived relapse commonly followed by shame, worthlessness, sadness and in some cases suicidal thoughts, alongside forum cultures documented as hostile in ways unrelated to recovery. Journalists have reported far-right and conspiratorial activity in NoFap and No Nut November communities, and the one survey to measure anything asked NoFap users what they had seen on the forums.
What to keep: a couple of people who get it. What to leave: streak-as-status, confident biology, and any space where the conversation drifts toward who is to blame.
Where this comes from
Read the full lesson: NoFap, No Nut November, and what to keep →
Sources and how strong they are (6)
- AnecdotalA qualitative analysis of 104 rebooting abstinence journals found abstinence felt impossible at first and became attainable with cognitive-behavioural strategies plus social support. The benefits members attributed to abstinence were a regained sense of control over their use, and improvements in mood, energy, mental clarity, focus, confidence, motivation and productivity, less emotional numbness, and social and sexual functioning. Sleep is not among them — the paper's only mention of sleep is a healthier sleep routine adopted as one of the lifestyle changes made to support abstinence. The same paper is also the only systematic catalogue of what members themselves say triggers them: external cues (electronic media and social feeds, seeing attractive people in real life, being alone in one's bedroom), internal cues, chiefly negative affect, and the "chaser effect" — cravings that follow any sexual activity engaged in during abstinence. Alcohol appears nowhere in it. Self-report only; third variables not ruled out.
- Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths 2021, Archives of Sexual Behavior 50(2):711-728, doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01858-w, PMID 33403533, PMC7889567
- Mixed evidenceA preregistered survey of men recruited from reboot communities found perceived relapse commonly followed by shame, worthlessness, sadness and in some cases suicidal thoughts. The same survey asked what participants had seen on NoFap forums: 73.7% reported misogynist posts, 49.1% bullying, 42.9% anti-LGBT, 32.0% antisemitic, 23.5% posts instructing followers to harm or kill themselves and 21.1% threats to hurt someone else. The sample is self-selected and not representative, and these are participant reports rather than a count of forum content.
- Prause N & Binnie J 2023, Sexualities 27(8):1608-1640, doi:10.1177/13634607231157070
- Mixed evidenceJournalists have reported far-right and conspiratorial activity in NoFap and No Nut November communities, and a 2025 discourse study examines NoFap as a route into right-wing politics. The one survey to measure anything here asked NoFap users what they had seen on the forums: 73.7% reported misogynist posts, 42.9% anti-LGBT and 32.0% antisemitic. That is participant recall of forum content, not a measure of the movement.
- Dickson EJ, "How a New Meme Exposes the Far-Right Roots of #NoNutNovember", Rolling Stone, 8 November 2019, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/coomer-meme-no-nut-november-nofap-908676/
- Cole S, "Let This Be the Last No Nut November", Vice, 30 November 2018, https://www.vice.com/en/article/let-this-be-the-last-no-nut-november-nofap-meme-explained/
- Klee M, "No Nut November? Sorry, Boys, It's Your Patriotic Duty to Get Off All Month", MEL Magazine, 1 November 2018, https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/no-nut-november-nofap-masturbation-abstinence-right-wing-extremism
- Burnett S, Borba R & Hiramoto M 2025, "Hailing, Voicing, and Masturbation Abstention: NoFap's Role in Socializing Young Men into the Right-Wing Politics of Ressentiment", Journal of Right-Wing Studies 2(2), doi:10.5070/RW3.1623
- Prause N & Binnie J 2023, Sexualities 27(8):1608-1640, doi:10.1177/13634607231157070
- Mixed evidenceA systematic review of 47 prospective short-term abstinence studies across six behaviours found abstinence shows promise for pornography use, while noting that counterproductive effects — rebound, compensatory behaviour — were poorly measured.
- Fernandez DP, Kuss DJ & Griffiths MD 2020, Clin Psychol Rev 76:101828, doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101828, PMID 32062303
- Mixed evidenceNo sound evidence supports the day-seven testosterone peak, and nothing supports a sustained hormonal benefit from long-term retention. The widely repeated "testosterone peaks on day seven" figure rests on a single study of 28 men that was retracted in 2021, was published twice, and has never been independently replicated. A separate ten-man study did find testosterone higher after three weeks of abstinence, but that is a different design testing a different question, and it has not been replicated either.
- Jiang M, Xin J, Zou Q, Shen JW, J Zhejiang Univ Sci 2003;4(2):236-240, doi:10.1631/jzus.2003.0236, PMID 12659241 — RETRACTED 10 December 2021 (Retraction Note doi:10.1631/jzus.2003.r236)
- The duplicate publication that caused the retraction: Jiang M, Sheng Li Xue Bao 2002;54(6):535-538 (in Chinese), PMID 12506329
- Not a replication: Exton et al. 2001, World J Urol 19(5):377-382, doi:10.1007/s003450100222, PMID 11760788
- AnecdotalThe "flatline" — a period of dropped libido, mood or arousal during abstinence — is consistently reported in abstinence journals and is named in the review literature, but it has never been measured prospectively or in a general population.
- Fernandez DP, Kuss DJ & Griffiths MD 2021, Arch Sex Behav 50(2):711-728, doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01858-w, PMID 33403533, PMC7889567
- Mead D & Sharpe M 2020, Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(10):3462, doi:10.3390/ijerph17103462
- Ince C, Antons S, Ashton S, Borgogna NC, Brand M, Briken P, Castro-Calvo J, Chen L, Coleman E, Efrati Y, Fernández DP, Fuss J et al. 2026, J Behav Addict 15(1):32-98, doi:10.1556/2006.2025.00337, PMID 41879870, PMC13132360
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