Think hitting the gym for a few hours a week keeps your heart safe? For men, that might not be enough.
A new study suggests men may need nearly twice as much exercise as women to get the same protection against coronary heart disease.
Researchers found women who logged around 250 minutes of activity a week cut their heart disease risk by 30%.
Men? They had to grind out about 530 minutes — almost nine hours — to see similar results.
Gender Gap In Exercise
The findings, published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, are based on data from more than 80,000 participants in the UK Biobank project.
“Compared with male individuals, females derive equivalent health benefits with only half the exercise time,” the authors wrote.
Dr. Jiajin Chen of Xiamen University, who led the study, said both sexes clearly benefit from staying active.
He added, “We particularly hope our findings encourage physically inactive women to become more active.”
Scientists aren’t yet sure why women seem to get more bang for their buck — hormones, muscle fibres, and metabolism could all play a role.
As Dr. Emily Lau of Massachusetts General Hospital put it: “One size really does not fit all.”
Maybe it’s time fitness guidelines stopped pretending it does.
