Wearable device data from about 85,000 people suggests striking sex differences that challenge current health guidelines
Women may achieve similar heart disease protection as men with about half the weekly exercise time. That’s according to research tracking approximately 85,000 people wearing wrist accelerometers measuring moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for a week.
The study, published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, reports that women reached roughly a 30% lower coronary heart disease risk at about 250 minutes of weekly exercise, while men needed approximately 530 minutes for comparable protection. Among people who already had heart disease, the gap looked even wider: meeting activity guidelines was linked to about 70% lower overall death risk for women versus 19% for men.
Major health organizations currently recommend identical exercise targets for both sexes: at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week. Women already struggle more than men to hit these targets, yet this research suggests they may need less time to reap the same rewards.
Exercise And Gender By The Numbers
Researchers from Xiamen University analyzed UK Biobank data spanning nearly eight years. Rather than relying on people’s memories of how much they exercised (which tends to be overly optimistic), participants wore devices that objectively tracked their movement.
But despite doing less, the minutes were linked to larger cardiovascular benefits in women than in men.
Among people without heart disease at the start, women who hit the 150-minute weekly target showed 22% lower risk of developing heart problems during follow-up. Men meeting the same target? Just 17% lower risk.
For those already living with heart disease, the pattern held. Active women had death rates of 1.76% versus 9.15% for inactive women. Active men fared better than inactive men too (9.38% versus 15.13%), but the relative benefit was smaller.
Why Women’s Bodies Might Respond Differently
Scientists don’t have the complete answer yet, but they’ve got some educated guesses.
Estrogen could be key. Women naturally have much higher levels than men, and research shows estrogen boosts fat burning during exercise. Since using fat for fuel (rather than just sugar) appears to benefit heart health, this hormonal difference might partly explain why women see bigger returns on their exercise investment.
Muscle composition offers another clue. Men have more type II muscle fibers, built for quick, powerful movements but dependent on sugar metabolism. Women have more type I fibers, which excel at endurance and efficiently burn fat. These differences in how muscles work during sustained activity might translate to different heart benefits.
The researchers stress these are still theories requiring lab studies to confirm.
Showing Up Matters
The study also looked at consistency. Each extra day women squeezed in about 21 minutes of exercise was linked to 6% lower heart disease risk. For men, each active day is connected to about 4% lower risk.
Women who exercised daily saw their heart disease rates drop from 5.2% to 1.5%. Men who went from zero to seven active days weekly saw rates fall from 10.2% to 4.7%.
If these findings hold up in more diverse populations, they might reshape how we think about exercise recommendations. Right now, telling everyone to hit the same target may discourage women, who globally lag behind men in meeting activity guidelines (33.8% of women versus 28.7% of men fall short).
Knowing that women might achieve similar or better protection with less time could help narrow this gap. And with fitness trackers becoming ubiquitous, personalized targets based on sex, health status, and individual response patterns could become more common rather than one-size-fits-all advice.
Source: https://studyfinds.org/how-much-exercise-protects-heart-women-men/
