Study Finds Least Fit Adults Need 30-50 Extra Minutes of Weekly Exercise

A study of more than 17,000 British adults found that people with the lowest fitness levels required 30-50 minutes more moderate to vigorous exercise each week to achieve the same cardiovascular risk reduction as the fittest participants. Researchers examined data from adults aged 40-69 who took part in the UK Biobank study.

Participants completed a cycle test to measure baseline cardiorespiratory fitness and wore a fitness tracker for one week to record typical exercise levels. The adults were tracked for an average of eight years. During that period, more than 1,200 cardiovascular incidents occurred, including heart attack, atrial fibrillation, stroke, and heart failure.

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that achieving the NHS guideline of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week was associated with an 8-9% reduction in cardiovascular risk. The research calculated that additional exercise lowered risk further.

To achieve a 20% reduced risk, the least fit needed 370 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week, while the most fit needed 340 minutes. To reduce cardiovascular event odds by more than 30%, the least fit would need more than 610 minutes per week, while the most fit would need 560 minutes.

Doherty, professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Oxford, said the recommendation of 560-610 minutes of exercise per week was not a sensible public health message. A Sport England spokesperson stated that increasing activity levels was vital for keeping people healthier for longer and that emerging research reinforces the importance of helping more people be active more often.