Women Get Exercise Benefits in Half the Time as Men

Women who exercise for 150 minutes per week will lower their risk of death significantly more than men who do the same. That's according to a new observational study suggesting that when it comes to exercise, women can do less and benefit more. "The beauty of this study is learning that women can get more out of each minute of moderate to vigorous activity than men do," Cedars-Sinai cardiologist Dr. Martha Gulati, co-author of the study published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, tells CBS News. Researchers asked 412,413 US adults about their exercise habits every few years from 1997 to 2019—a period in which almost 40,000 participants died, including 11,670 from cardiovascular issues.

At the end of the period, researchers concluded that, for men, those who engaged in 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week saw the biggest reduction in risk of premature death from any cause at 18%, per the Guardian. Women, on the other hand, needed just 140 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week to lower their risk of death by 18%. "And their risk kept getting lower as they went up to 300 minutes a week," per CBS. Men who exercised at least 150 minutes per week were 15% less likely to die than men who exercised less, but women who exercised the same amount were 24% less likely to die from any cause than women who exercised less. Women who exercised were also 36% less likely to suffer a cardiovascular event, while men who exercised had a 14% reduced risk.

Additionally, women achieved peak benefit from one session per week of muscle-strengthening activities, associated with a 30% reduction in cardiovascular risk, compared to three sessions per week for men, associated with an 11% reduction in risk. Because the study was observational, researchers can't say for sure that exercise causes the lower risk. But as CBS reports, "men on average have proportionately larger hearts, wider lung airways, greater lung diffusion capacity and larger muscle fibers than women," so it makes sense that certain activities require more physical effort of women than of men and lead to faster and bigger gains. This study certainly shows "for a given amount of time and effort put into exercise, women had more to gain than men," senior study author and Cedars-Sinai cardiologist Dr. Susan Cheng tells CNN. (More exercise stories.)