{"id":681864,"date":"2026-05-20T00:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681864\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:10:08","slug":"least-fit-people-need-to-do-more-exercise-than-fittest-to-get-same-benefit-study-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681864\/","title":{"rendered":"Least fit people need to do more exercise than fittest to get same benefit \u2013 study | Fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"

People who are the least fit need to do 30-50 minutes more exercise a week than the fittest to get the same reduction in cardiovascular risk, according to research.<\/p>\n

Researchers examined data from more than 17,000 British adults taking part in the UK Biobank study. They completed a cycle test to measure their baseline cardiorespiratory fitness (estimated VO2 max) and wore a fitness tracker for a week to record typical exercise levels.<\/p>\n

The adults, aged 40-69 were tracked for an average of eight years, during which there were more than 1,200 cardiovascular incidents, including heart attack, atrial fibrillation stroke and heart failure.<\/p>\n

The NHS<\/a> advises adults to do at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week, such as brisk walking, cycling or running.<\/p>\n

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found achieving this guideline of two and a half hours\u2019 exercise was associated with a 8-9% reduced cardiovascular risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that large proportions of the population do not meet even this benchmark, the primary public health message remains straightforward: achieving 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous activity delivers meaningful cardiovascular protection regardless of fitness level,\u201d the authors conclude.<\/p>\n

The research also calculates that more exercise lowered the risk even further, but that those with the lowest fitness needed about 30-50 extra minutes\u2019 exercise a week to obtain the same benefits.<\/p>\n

To achieve a 20% reduced risk, the least fit needed to do 370 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, whereas those with the highest fitness levels only needed 340 minutes.<\/p>\n

To reduce the odds of cardiovascular events by more than 30%, the least fit would need to do more than 10 hours (610 minutes) while the most fit would have to do just over nine hours (560 minutes).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis finding highlights the steeper challenge faced by deconditioned populations,\u201d the research concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent moderate-to-vigorous physical activity guidelines provide a universal but modest safety margin, whereas optimal cardiovascular protection may require substantially higher activity volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture guidelines and implementation strategies may need to differentiate between the minimal moderate-to-vigorous physical activity volume required for a basic safety margin and the substantially higher volumes necessary for optimal cardiovascular risk reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings appear to challenge previous research, which found that walking only 4,000 steps a day<\/a> would still reduce older people\u2019s risk of dying early by around a quarter.<\/p>\n

But experts said recommending more than nine hours a week of exercise was \u201cmisguided\u201d.<\/p>\n

Aiden Doherty, professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Oxford, said: \u201cWe can\u2019t give much weight to the figure of 560-610 minutes of exercise a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly there will be cardiovascular benefit for people who are able to do (more than) 1 hour 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity a day but this is not a sensible public health message.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public should continue to aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity of physical activity a week; more is better; every move counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the findings, a Sport England spokesperson said that increasing activity levels was vital for keeping people healthier for longer: \u201cEmerging research like this reinforces the importance of helping more people be active, more often.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport England\u2019s own research shows activity relieves healthcare issues for both individuals and the NHS, preventing 1.3 million cases of depression, 600,000 of diabetes and 57,000 of dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who are the least fit need to do 30-50 minutes more exercise a week than the fittest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137],"class_list":["post-681864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}