Even those who cannot lose weight can live longer if they are physically active

Wonder how a brisk walk each week can extend your life by years? Scientists have found that walking briskly for 75 minutes a week can increase your life expectancy by 1.8 years. Walking for four times that duration can even add more than four years. This is the conclusion of a study of more than 600,000 people. It also shows that being obese and inactive correlates on average with a 7.2 year reduction in life expectancy — almost as much as the drop associated with smoking. “We found some physical activity is good, more physical activity is better,” said Professor I-Min Lee, from Harvard Medical School.

“Current recommendations ask for individuals to be physically active for 150 minutes a week in total. We found out that if you follow those recommendations you live 3.4 years longer than those who don’t take the recommendations. Even if you are active at half that level you still live longer than someone who does nothing.”

The study, published in the journal PLoS One, was based on self- reported answers about body mass index and exercise, and followed the subjects for an average of ten years.
Professor Lee said that one of her conclusions was about exercise in overweight people. “There are a lot of overweight and obese people. Many of them try to lose weight — and we know that most will be unsuccessful. This can be discouraging. But we found that even if you can’t drop weight but can be physically active, you will still live longer.”
“It takes the focus away from ‘I must lose weight’ to ‘I must be physically active’.”

The Times – 7 november 2012 – by Tom Whipple – Science Correspondent