Men might need to exercise twice as long as women to receive the same benefit, suggests a major new study of 85,000 people.
Researchers found that women who completed around four hours of moderate to vigorous exercise per week – such as brisk jogging, swimming or dancing – cut their risk of coronary heart disease by 30 per cent. Men, however, needed nearly nine hours of weekly activity to achieve the same reduction.
“Compared with male individuals, females derive equivalent health benefits with only half the exercise time,” the researchers wrote in the study, published by Nature Cardiovascular Research.
The team didn’t investigate the reasons why there was such a marked difference, though it did suggest a few physiological causes.
Women have higher levels of oestrogen, a hormone that’s linked to bone and muscle health, as well as how fast fat is metabolised.
Women and men also have different types of skeletal muscles, with women’s being more suited to heart-boosting endurance exercises.
“Although heart disease is the leading cause of early death in both sexes, men tend to develop heart disease earlier, while women ’catch up’ after menopause in later life,” Prof Riyaz Patel – a cardiologist at University College London, who wasn’t involved in the study – told BBC Science Focus.
“If there’s a take-home message, it should be that everyone benefits from exercise. More exercise is better for everyone.”
The study, led by Jiajin Chen of Xiamen University in China, tracked participants aged 37 to 73 using wrist-worn fitness monitors and followed their health outcomes for eight years.
Even among people already living with cardiovascular disease, women needed just 51 minutes of weekly exercise to cut their risk of death by 30 per cent, compared with 85 minutes for men.
Globally, heart disease is the leading cause of premature death. In the US alone, around 100 in every 100,000 women died from cardiovascular disease in 2023. For men, that number was 60 per cent higher.
The World Health Organisation, American Heart Association and NHS all recommend that people aged 16 to 64 should aim for 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week, regardless of sex.
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