However, the current study suggests that even 75 minutes of the same level of physical activity every week is enough to save you from an early death. So who is right, NHS or Cambridge?
The logic behind 11-minute brisk walking
To explore the links between physical activity levels and common causes of early death, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, the researchers went through the findings of 196 peer-reviewed research works. These studies collectively involved over 30 million participants from 94 different age groups.
They noticed that over 60 percent of the participants did moderately intense physical activity for less than 150 minutes a week, and less than 10 percent of the subjects performed exercise for more than 300 minutes a week.
However, the most interesting finding was that those who exercised or brisk walked 75 minutes on a weekly basis (ie, 11 minutes every day) with the same level of intensity also received almost the same health benefits as the people who exercised 150 minutes a week . There was only a marginal difference between the risk of early death faced by people in both groups.
“If you are someone who finds the idea of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week a bit daunting, then our findings should be good news. Doing some physical activity is better than doing none. This is also a good starting position – if you find that 75 minutes a week is manageable, then you can try stepping it up gradually to the full recommended amount,” said Dr. Soren Brage, one of the study authors and a scientist at Cambridge University.