New study finds men need almost double the exercise that women do to cut heart disease risk

A study has found that women may gain heart protection from physical activity much faster than men.

The study, published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, used wearable accelerometer data from more than 85,000 people in the UK Biobank. It tracked 80,243 adults who did not have coronary heart disease (CHD) to measure new cases, and 5,169 people already diagnosed with CHD to measure mortality outcomes.

Although global guidelines from AHA, ESC and WHO recommend the same target of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week for both men and women, the research shows that the benefits are not equal.

Women who met guidelines had a 22% lower risk of developing CHD, while men had a 17% lower risk. The study calculated that women can reduce their heart disease risk by 30% with around 250 minutes of weekly exercise, but men need roughly 530 minutes per week to get the same reduction more than double.

Even among those who already had CHD, active women had a greater reduction in death risk compared to active men.

Researchers say the results highlight the need for sex-specific physical activity recommendations and that wearable devices may help tailor prevention strategies more precisely.