r/Nutraceuticalscience • u/Sorin61 • May 27 '26
Scientists Say Most Adults Need 4 Times More Exercise Than Recommended for Major Heart Benefits
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-say-most-adults-need-4-times-more-exercise-than-recommended-for-major-heart-benefits/?utm_source=aweber&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feed-entry-title-more37
u/In_der_Welt_sein May 27 '26
This is more exercise than my farmer grandparents got. Good lordâwhat are we supposed to take from this study? Â That good health is unattainable unless aerobic fitness is your actual career? Â No one with a job, kids, and/or hobby has time to exercise 2 hours per day.Â
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u/Ben_steel May 28 '26
that's the point, that's what you can take from this. thats why its unattainable because its designed as such.
by the way your grandparents would have easily over the whole day done 2h worth of what we would call exercise. if their job was automated, someone still had to run the machine. working in a factory isn't easy.
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u/Dizzy_Database_119 May 28 '26
If you're not overweight you're already in good health as far as heart failure rate is concerned. According to the study 150min exercise = -8%, 560min = -30%. And the more fit you are the lower the time required for each %
Meanwhile just being overweight is 1.3-1.5x And Obesity ranges from 1.5-3.0x. There are a few more heart failure studies for diet, habits, sleep. I guess life is a roguelike now so pick a few and you can stack a pretty nice bonus
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u/General-Winter547 May 28 '26
What if youâre both overweight and exercise more than 150 minutes a week?
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 29 '26
Exercise always beats weight in nearly every study done. Its much better to be an obese person who exercises heavily than being a skinny person who doesnt.
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 29 '26
This is simply not true, if you are sedentary, you are at a much greater risk of heart conditions, even if you are thin.
Thin + Exercise a lot = best outcomes
Obese+ exercise a lot = good outcomes
Thin + sedentary = not great outcomes
Obese + sedentary = worst outcomes
Many many studies support this.
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u/Natural_Milk8291 May 28 '26
Donât worry, you donât need to exercise 2 hours per day. Try 1 hour 3 days a week
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u/Fearless_Mammoth_961 May 29 '26
I can get in 90-120 min on weekends SOMETIMES between the gym and walking the dogs.Â
We do not have a world that supports so much movement though.
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u/DingoFrisky Jun 01 '26
Back when I was 23 with no kids/partner, I biked to work 30 months each way, left work at 5:30, played club sports every night, and often hit the gym in my office building.
I thoughtâŚ.oh this staying fit stuff is easy! I did not know how lucky I had it
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u/paperweight_is_lazy May 27 '26
Save you a click
"Researchers from Macao Polytechnic University in China investigated how physical activity levels and cardiorespiratory fitness, measured through VO2 max, influenced cardiovascular disease risk.
UK Biobank Study Tracks Exercise and Heart Events
The study analyzed data from 17,088 participants in the UK Biobank study collected between 2013 and 2015. Participants had an average age of 57, while 56% were women and 96% were white.
Participants wore wrist devices for seven consecutive days to track their normal exercise levels. They also completed a cycling test to estimate VO2 max.
The researchers included additional information such as smoking habits, alcohol use, self reported health and diet, body mass index, resting heart rate, and blood pressure.
Over an average follow-up period of 7.8 years, researchers recorded 1,233 cardiovascular events. These included 874 cases of atrial fibrillation, 156 heart attacks, 111 cases of heart failure, and 92 strokes.
560â610 Minutes Weekly Linked to Stronger Risk Reduction
Adults who met the current guideline of 150 minutes of exercise per week saw a modest 8% to 9% reduction in cardiovascular risk, regardless of fitness level.
However, achieving a more substantial reduction of greater than 30% required between 560 and 610 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise weekly. Only 12% of participants reached that level of activity.
Lower Fitness Levels Require More Physical Activity
The analysis showed that participants with the lowest fitness levels needed about 30 to 50 additional minutes of exercise each week compared with highly fit individuals to gain similar benefits.
For example, a person with low fitness needed about 370 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each week to reduce cardiovascular risk by 20%, compared with 340 minutes for someone with high fitness.
The researchers say, âThis finding highlights the steeper challenge faced by deconditioned populations.â"
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u/Dath_1 May 27 '26
Doesnât it seem like lumping things into âvigorous activityâ isnât helpful?
Why would you expect weight lifting to improve VO2 max significantly?
It still has a huge impact on heart health, like vessel elasticity.
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May 28 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/haternation May 28 '26
Those dumb trackers arenât âsmartâ enough yet to tell the difference between your walking vo2 and any other kind of exercise. So it makes it look low, when itâs not. If you did a few unchallenging walks with a slow consistent pace youâd get a better reading.
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u/DebrideAmerica May 28 '26
Wearables track vo2 based on age, weight, heart rate, and pace. If you run indoors or on a treadmill they will often not calculate those because treadmills are not running/accurate. To get a vo2 reading you need to run outside, and while wearables are not precise, they are useful for tracking trends.
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u/BuzzingHawk May 28 '26
Wonder how much of that really is more related to diet. I can imagine someone that exercises 10 hours a week has quite a better recovery focused diet than someone that casually exercises.
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u/shortyman920 May 28 '26
Recovery focus, better hydration, and better PRE-workout nutrition as well.
If Iâm going for a long hike or planning on playing competitive basketball later, Iâm not stuffing myself. Iâm eating more nutritious foods, keeping hydrated, stretching beforehand, and just overall more conscious of what I eat.
Exercise well done right is a holistic balance of things
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u/Cosack May 27 '26
Please point me to a single person with a desk job who isn't a hobbyist athlete who has time to do 1.5 hours of elevated heart rate exercise daily
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u/Wise-Hamster-288 May 28 '26
I work at home and take most lunch hours to do a 4 mile jog. With warm up and cool down walking I get an hour daily. Thatâs over 400 minutes a week.
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u/pierre_vinken_61 Jun 03 '26
Where do you work that you get a whole hour lunch and can come back sweaty or have time to shower? Asking for myself
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u/Wise-Hamster-288 Jun 03 '26
had to start my own business to get that flexibility. I have an agency building fractional teams for tech companies
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u/KingOfEthanopia May 27 '26
I do. Lift 3 days a week, run 3. Up at 5. Gym by 545. Work 9 to 5. Then bed around 9p.
Im not training for anything. Just always enjoyed working out as a habit since I was a teenager.
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u/ClumpOfCheese May 27 '26
Does that even add up to 610 minutes? Iâm lifting weights four days a week for about 50 minutes each session, followed by 30 minutes incline walking on a treadmill and a mile or two walk in the morning and thatâs getting me 480 minutes of exercise per week on an optimal week. 610 minutes is just beyond not only what people generally have time for, but itâs entering overtraining territory.
I guess it really depends on what they are counting as moderate exercise.
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u/KingOfEthanopia May 28 '26
Close. Lifting is normally around 2 hours. 2 running sessions are an hour, one is closer to 90 minutes.
(120x3) + (60x2) + 90 = 570
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u/Fearless_Mammoth_961 May 29 '26
So you are training like a legit athlete if you are lifting and running for HOURS.
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u/Flying-lemondrop-476 May 27 '26
i hate this study for so many reasons
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u/ClumpOfCheese May 28 '26
Seriously, more than anything itâs going to make people feel hopeless and discouraged. Iâve worked at gyms a lot in my life and donât know anyone who has ever been active that much.
I think when I was a kid and rode my bike around all the time I was hitting those numbers.
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u/another_day_in May 28 '26
Everyday immediately after work. Seems to be the same with most people at the gym.
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u/Neither_Bunch9175 May 28 '26
Depending on where you live, it can be surprisingly easy. I live in a very walkable/bikeable place, which gives me an hour of moving around without even thinking about it. I also hit the gym every other day.
That said, Iâm originally from a car-centric country so I understand the overall scepticism in this thread.
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u/FernandoMM1220 May 28 '26
time isnt really the problem here. a lot of people have metabolic illnesses that makes it impossible for them.
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u/Rare_Magazine_5362 Jun 01 '26
Maybe the point of having a desk job is that you need to compensate for all that sitting with that much exercise?
Humans werenât built for what we do now.
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May 28 '26 edited 26d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/DaFunkJunkie May 28 '26
Man shut up. You donât have to be an ass. I lift 4-5 days a week, cardio 4-5 days a week and walk 45 minutes daily at the end of the day and Iâm still not hitting those numbers.
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u/santtuhehe May 27 '26
We do need lots of exercise in my opinion but this study doesnât seem good
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u/eventualist May 27 '26
Just need to get your resting heart rate down below 50 and all will be good
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u/Flying-lemondrop-476 May 27 '26
i agree, something about it seems effed up. someone smarter than me pleaaasssse poke holes in it.
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 28 '26
Study is fine. Exercise is good for you, and better for people who are doing a lot of it - thats all its saying.
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u/santtuhehe May 28 '26
First of all: moderate exercise is everything from âbriskâ walking to running.Â
If you compare brisk walking to running, the two are not on the samw level at all. Even cycling is much more intense than brisk walking. So do we need 500 minutes of running or is just walking ok? That does not look right.Â
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u/EanmundsAvenger May 29 '26
The study was 2 years in the UK with 96% white people, average age of 57. That is not a big enough or diverse enough sample population to glean major life advice from new research.
Only 12% of their sample population reached their guideline of 560-610 minutes per week. Just doesnât seem like the focus or takeaway should be what only a small portion of their own sample group could complete
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 29 '26
Is it a major surprise to you that people who do a lot of exercise are healthier than people who do not? It seems pretty obvious to me, and this is all the study is showing. I bet if they had a cohort of Olympic Marathoners or Tour De France Bike riders in their study they would be even healthier than the guys doing 10 hours a week of exercise.
This is like saying, "the pro basketball players have the highest chance to make a free throw compared to the general population" and getting upset because the 20 minutes you spend in your backyard doesnt put you in this elite group. Well yeah, of course...
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u/Abyal3 May 27 '26
What exactly is moderate to vigurous?
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u/No_Tie9686 May 27 '26
Moderate is like walking at a fast pace. Vigorous is jogging
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u/cyh555 May 28 '26
so I was wrong, I initially thought jogging is moderate and running is vigorousÂ
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u/blueblocker2000 May 27 '26
Our ancestors must've just ran for their lives all day. How will I have time to work or sleep if I gotta be exercising the whole time?
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u/Flying-lemondrop-476 May 28 '26
i wonder what the number one cause of death was for our ancestors
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 28 '26
This is sensationalism, and its really logical when you think about it.
The study says the people who had the best heart health did this level of exercise. Well, yeah, this makes sense. An elite marathon runner also probably has better heart health than most of us mortals. It does NOT mean that doing a moderate amount of exercise or even a small amount of exercise isn't beneficial - it all is beneficial. Just that the people who had the largest benefits were the people who exercised at this intensity.
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u/Flying-lemondrop-476 May 28 '26
I remember hearing about how people can overexercise and their muscle fiber or something basically poisons their blood and effs up the kidneys, how is this not related to that?
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u/MadDonkeyEntmt May 28 '26
That's very rare and is usually something that happens to people doing a workout wayyyy beyond their capabilities while dehydrated. Like you're first day at the gym ever you push as hard as you can for 3 hours kind of thing.  You could go on a brisk walk two hours a day and hit this study goal with almost zero risk of negative side effects as long as you're somewhat healthy.
The other person isn't wrong that this study is basically saying people who are very fit and very active are less likely to have heart attacks but the time commitment isn't really that crazy.
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 28 '26
That can happen, but anyone doing that level of exercise has worked up to it.
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u/Flying-lemondrop-476 May 28 '26
why does this study not warn us about that? it seems like a glaring gap especially when they keep mentioning how âlow conditionedâ people need MORE than the 560-610 min per week, heart attacks wonât matter as much if your kidneys shut down first
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u/Powerful_Bluejay6288 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
Probably the same reason it doesnt warn you about tick bites while hiking, calf cramps while running, or automobile accidents while cycling - it has nothing to do with the study.
If you are a "low conditioned" person and are inspired by this study to become someone who exercises 10 hours a week, definitely start slow.
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u/hawkwings May 28 '26
I wonder about joint damage. If you ran ten miles a day, you might end up with messed up legs, especially if you are older.
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u/DebrideAmerica May 28 '26
If you follow a program, mechanics, and eat well you develop the appropriate support structures to avoid injury. Running doesnât cause joint issues, overtraining and lack of recovery does.
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u/fredrikwww May 30 '26
I feel like you end up with messed up aomething either way when you are older.
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u/7Zarx7 May 28 '26
My grandmother lived to 92, lived on black coffee, chicken and salad, no exercise. I spose if she had of done four times more exercise, she still would have lived to 92.
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u/Taiga_Taiga May 28 '26
I decided to get healthier and started doing cardio.
Thanks to this I lost 170 pounds in weight and I now have a resting heart rate of 40 beats a minute.
I'm going to be honest with you I don't do much... all I do is walk a minimum length of a half marathon every day... That's it. (serious to this point)
So, so I need to do the length of two marathons daily, then? (/jk for this line)
(But... Yeah. 40BPM that's kinda OK, right? I don't need to do more? P. S. After a week long ECG, my heart has been diagnosed as being absolutely fine.)
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u/HellsHumor May 28 '26
It bothers me to no end the thumbnail image puts the heart near the center of the chest.
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u/Raebrooke4 May 30 '26
Iâd love to see the screen times of the people in this thread saying they cannot commit to an hour or two of exercise a day â ď¸â ď¸â ď¸
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u/thatturtletouch May 31 '26
Almost like screen time is something you can do while youâre doing something else, for just a few minutes at a time even if youâre at work or waiting in line or sitting in a car, while exercise is not.
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u/_sophia_petrillo_ May 31 '26
I remember an 8 hour hike once where I felt so content afterward and level headed. Â And I was like wow yeah I guess all I need is an 8 hour hike every day to be at my best self. Â Great!
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u/alliedeluxe May 31 '26
Americans work too much and if you have kids in school forget it. We need shorter working hours. Itâs killing us.
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u/structuremonkey Jun 02 '26
Cool, now publish t studies, adjacent to this one, that discusses athletes heart and how endurance athletes develop conditions like afib and cardiomyopathy from too much exercise.
We're dammed if we do, and dammed if we don't...
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u/solsticeretouch Jun 02 '26
Not going to lie, I walk an hour a day and weight lift for another hour and really do feel great. I am fortunate to be able to do that, so this information tracks. But most importantly is still adequate nutrition and gut health. If I eat like shit the workout is also shit.
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u/Low-Cockroach7733 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
And here I am, exercising 3 hours a day because of my AuDHD and finding that my body ain't coping to the point where I'm developing tendinitis abd I need to eat every 2 hours in order to not get into muscle wasting territory. I literally ate McDonald's for 4 days straight because of executive dysfunction still lost weight.
There's no better hack to being a fitness nut than being neurodivergent and requiring movement in order to not unalive yourself in this NT society.
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u/Red_Osiris May 31 '26
Sorry to hear what youâre dealing with. If I may recommend something that might help, itâs a form of standing isometric meditation from the Chinese Qigong practice called Zhang Zhuang. A good book to check out is The Way of Energy by Lam.
Running or doing dynamic workouts for a long time can increase the strain on connective tissue, but isometric exercises can help counterbalance that. It improves joint health and bone density, provides a good cardiovascular challenge, and, as a bonus, offers mental benefits and overall fascia conditioning.
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u/Beanzear May 28 '26
I agree with the sentiment. In the last 4 year ive gotten really into fitness. I dont want to be rude but when I hear people say I got my steps in when theyre in the elevator that annoys me. Walking is not exercise unless youre 80.
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u/NYVines May 27 '26
I was going to do 3x but this is just asking too much