One golden rule to break the sedentary lifestyle is to get more physically active. In the contemporary era, there is a rise in health concerns, heart attacks etc. And exercising more, consuming a healthy nutrient-rich diet is essential to combat the woes of sitting for long hours. But how many hours should you devote for physical activity, how much time should you stand or sit? A new Australian study has answers to these question.
How Many Hours of Physical Activity Is Important?
For optimal health, a person’s ideal day should include more than four hours of physical activity involving exercise of light, moderate or vigorous intensity, and at least eight hours of sleep. Light-intensity activity could range from doing chores to making dinner, whereas moderate and vigorous exercise involve more intentional movement such as a brisk walk or a gym workout, researchers said.
4 hours of physical activity
8 hours of sleep
6 hours of sitting
5 hours of standing
The international team, led by Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, analyzed the behavior of more than 2,000 people within a 24-hour day to determine the right mix of time spent sitting, sleeping, standing and being physically active for desirable health.
“This breakdown encompasses a wide range of health markers and converges on the 24 hours associated with overall optimal health,” said Christian Brakenridge, from the Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology.
“For different health markers, from waist circumference to fasting glucose, there would be different levels for each behavior,” added Brakenridge, also the lead author of the study published in the journal Diabetologia.
For instance, switching time spent sitting with more time being physically active or performing light-intensity movements was associated with more beneficial blood glucose levels in individuals having diabetes than those without the condition, the researchers found.
The findings also acknowledged how a certain activity replacing another could impact an individual’s whole day. “Sleeping may be detrimental to health if it replaces exercise time, but beneficial if it replaces sedentary behavior,” explained Brakenridge.
However, even as exercising is more beneficial, time use has to be realistic and balanced, he said. “People may advocate for more time exercising, though it’s not feasible to have 10 hours of exercise and zero hours of sedentary behavior,” the researcher said.
