Harvard Study Finds Big Gains In Small Exercise

How much exercise is enough? Less than many people think. A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School has found that only 75 minutes of brisk walking each week—roughly 11 minutes a day, adds 1.8 years of life when compared with no exercise at all. Wait, there’s more: people who do the federally recommended minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week—22 minutes every day, or 30 minutes a day, five days a week—gain people 3.4 years. Harvard magazine reports on the study, which pooled data from six large studies of leisure activities and body mass index of more than 650,000 people older than 40. The magazine reports that the life gains applied to people of all weight levels, although normal-weight people who did 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week got the biggest bonus: the lived more than seven years longer than those who didn’t exercise and had the highest body mass index. Read more from Harvard Magazine.