Sebastien Chastin, professor health behaviour dynamics of people, places and systems, Glasgow Caledonian University; and Keith Diaz, assistant professor of behavioral medicine, Columbia University Medical Center:
It’s recommended we do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day — or 150 minutes a week — to stay healthy. But 30 minutes accounts for just 2% of the day. And many of us spend most of the rest of the time sitting.
Research shows that sitting can be bad for our health in many ways — with some even suggesting it’s as bad for us as smoking. And our new study has revealed that 30 minutes of daily exercise is not enough to overcome the health risks of sitting too much.
But we also revealed that with the right balance of time spent exercising and moving, it may be possible to counteract the negatives of sitting.
We combined data from six different studies from the UK, US and Sweden, looking at a total of over 130,000 adults.
Each of the studies used a…
