Brisk Walking Linked to Remarkably Longer Life, Regardless of Weight
New research reveals surprising benefits of a good walk.
Brisk walking is well established as a viable form of moderate physical activity, a threshold not difficult to achieve yet known to improve physical health and mental well-being and up the odds of a longer life. A new study provides one of the most dramatic links yet between walking and longevity. But you’ll want to pick up the pace.
Researchers looked at data across seven years on 474,919 people in the UK, during which time 12,823 of them died. The subjects had defined their own walking pace as slow, steady/average or brisk.
No surprise, the brisk walkers had longer life expectancies, on average. But the number of extra years is dramatic. And most interesting: Brisk walking was linked to more time on this planet regardless of weight — including not just overweight people but also the obese, as measured by body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage and waist size.
“Fast walkers have a long life expectancy across all categories of obesity status, regardless of how obesity status is measured,”…
