Scientists reveal how much exercise you need to ‘offset’ sitting all day

Undoing a day of sitting only takes about 40 minutes, according to scientists (Credit: Getty)

Tackling our increasingly sedentary lifestyles doesn’t actually take as much effort as you think.

Scientists have worked out how much exercise you need to do to ‘offset’ sitting around all day.

They say up to 40 minutes of ‘moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity’ every day should do the trick.

The data comes from a study published a couple of years ago, which analysed nine previous studies consisting of 44,370 people all wearing some form of fitness tracker.

‘In active individuals doing about 30-40 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, the association between high sedentary time and risk of death is not significantly different from those with low amounts of sedentary time,’ the researchers explained in their study.

The findings broadly reinforce the current guidelines from the World Health Organisation on levels of physical activity for adults aged between 18 – 64 years old.

According to the WHO, these adults:

should do at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity; or at least 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the weekshould also do muscle-strengthening activities at moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week, as these provide additional health benefits.may increase moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity to more than 300 minutes; or do more than 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the week for additional health benefits.to help reduce the detrimental effects of high levels of sedentary behaviour on health, all adults and older adults should aim to do more than the recommended levels of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity.

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Tackling sedentary lifestyles doesn’t take as much effort as you think.