AIBU to think 20 min walking a day is not 'very active'

[UndertheCedartree]

I am reading a book called 'How not to die' by Michael Gregner. In it he talks about the 'Simple 7 steps' the American Heart Association says help cut your risk of Heart disease.

One is being 'very active'. This is defined as 22 minutes walking per day. I was pretty surprised by that. I walk more than that myself daily but don't consider myself very active, atall. I'm trying to get much healthier. Is that all I really need to aim for? Is there something I'm missing?

It does depend a bit where in America you mean. Also as with most of the world health outcome depends on poverty even in same town or city. I have relatives in cities in America who don’t walk and there isn’t a pavement. They go to the gym a lot. An aunt I. A town that walks a lot, wide pavements (sidewalks) but mainly spring and autumn as otherwise very hot or cold.

It’s certainly not very active by any desirable outcome, but it may well be very active when measured against reality. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I did read something a while back suggesting, that the ubiquitous 10,000 steps has no basis in science, but doing just 4,500 steps a day was enough to ward off the worst of the negative consequences brought about by inactivity.

(And I don’t say this as a lazy person, my minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise for the last 6 days has been 544!)

@WombatChocolate

I agree with the PP that the thing that makes the biggest difference is starting to exercise. If someone goes from zero to 20 mins 5 times a week, the gain is bigger than those who already exercise get from boosting the length or the intensity of their exercise. There are diminishing returns after a certain point.

Those poo-pooing a brisk 30 minute walk which covers 2 miles as being nothing are probably those who exercise much more regularly and intensely. Great for them. They might be healthy and fit. Probably the thing that makes the biggest difference to them though is that first stretch of exercise too.

The majority are never going to do 2 hours a day in the gym. Those who do 2 hours or 3 hours in the gym shouldn’t be condescending about lesser amounts of exercise.

Isn’t the book about becoming MORE healthy and reducing your risks substantially, not about what being in absolute peak physical health involved and looks like. Most people have no desire to be elite athletes. Many people can improve their overall health by a few seemingly basic (but often hard to implement and stick to) changes.

Some people fool themselves. They think that ambling along with the dog whilst reading on their phone for 20 mins means they’ve exercised. That’s absolutely not the same as a brisk and purposeful walk which raise the heart rate.

I hope I haven't come across that way. I think even 5 minutes a day compared to nothing is great and might be all someone can do. And yes, it would make sense that doing something rather than nothing is the biggest gain. What is 'best' for us ultimately is going to be individual. And no I don't want to be an elite athlete either, and I don't think it is great in terms of of health anyway. And yes, I agree the point is to raise the heart rate which was why I was surprised 'walking' rather than 'brisk.walking' made you 'very active'.

The book itself as far as I can tell so far is about getting extremely healthy, not just about a few first steps. Which is why he doesn't agree with 20 min walk per day being 'very active' or the thing to ultimately aim for.

@Sarahcoggles - just to be clear it is the American heart association that says this not the author - he disagrees. But that is my thought - what do you call it when someone is doing 20 min brisk execise or 30 min or an hour if a light 20 min walk is very active. Is a 10 min stroll 'moderately active'?

Re American Heart Association, I think they are defining 'very active' in this article, which cites this article.

And the point of last one is to divide activity levels into quintiles. The top 20% of people (presumably) did 22 or more minutes of moderate+ activity/day. These were older men referred for an exercise intervention, not random sampled people.

Probably the main people the AHA tries to help do very little exercise at point they start to try to improve their health.

@RonCarlos

It's not 'very' active. It's definitely 'active' and better than nothing. A local fitness trainer around here recommends a half hour walk daily. I do 30-40 minutes after work. I don't have time to get to a gym and back and I don't like running.

Agreed. But do they recommend a stroll or a brisk walk?

Brisk walk, not stroll. I think it is to form a habit, i.e. if you do nothing else then at least do this. I guess her theory is that by walking 30 mins a day minimum, you might also feel inspired to also do a couple of classes.

Ahem. I posted a link to the AHA guidelines. Says brisk walk for 30 minutes is moderate activity?

[quote PortalooSunset]@UndertheCedartree I'm confused by your assertion that it doesn't mean 'brisk walking' and only walking? A quick Google of the AHA guidelines will tell you that moderate activity does in fact mean brisk walking.. Mind, they also say at least 30 minutes 5 days a week so I guess the writer has altered things slightly. <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/%40wcm/%40fc/documents/downloadable/ucm_448770.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjCzaLI0a_2AhXCiVwKHWbZC4cQFnoECCAQBQ&usg=AOvVaw2KIgK6LuWdgXzR4996BjE2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Link to AHA guide[/quote]
Thank you for that! He does just say walking in the book and I did try and find it on the AHA site - obviously not very well! A brisk walk at least would seem of more benefit! I still wouldn't class that as 'very active' but maybe 'moderately active'.

I’d become unfit and overweight and untoned if I only walked 20 minutes a day

@gingerhills

I used to work with Americans - lots of them. And many commented that I would say, 'It's just a short walk from here,' meaning 10-15 mins, 20 max, when to them a 'short walk' was 2 minutes.

A short drive to them is often a long drive for us!

I would say that was sedentary!

@TheFlyHalfsMum

It’s certainly not very active by any desirable outcome, but it may well be very active when measured against reality. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I did read something a while back suggesting, that the ubiquitous 10,000 steps has no basis in science, but doing just 4,500 steps a day was enough to ward off the worst of the negative consequences brought about by inactivity.

(And I don’t say this as a lazy person, my minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise for the last 6 days has been 544!)

Interesting, thank you.

@lljkk

Re American Heart Association, I think they are defining 'very active' in this article, which cites this article.

And the point of last one is to divide activity levels into quintiles. The top 20% of people (presumably) did 22 or more minutes of moderate+ activity/day. These were older men referred for an exercise intervention, not random sampled people.

Probably the main people the AHA tries to help do very little exercise at point they start to try to improve their health.

Ah, so they are saying 'very active' is the average top amount of exercise people in their study did?

Yep I think the author has misquoted slightly, whether deliberate or not I don't know. But I agree with you I don't think I'd class it as very active.

I can't imagine walking for less than 20 minutes a day, actually I would find it really distressing. 20 minutes is a mile, which is only 2000 steps - I would do that just between car, work, desk, toilet, kitchen for drinks, up and down stairs - don't quite see how it's practically possible to do less unless you are disabled.
Like others I lived in the US and it's normal to drive from one side of the parking lot to another, and my housemates used to argue over who got the parking spot closest to the house.

@PortalooSunset

Yep I think the author has misquoted slightly, whether deliberate or not I don't know. But I agree with you I don't think I'd class it as very active.

Yes, I think he should have referred to it as 'brisk walking' rather than just walking. I've only just started the book so not sure at this stage if it was deliberate. He did say only 1 person out of a study of about 2000 passed all the 7 'simple steps' the AHA recommend.

Surely it means 22 mins brisk walk in one session? Which is a big change from the sedentary lifestyle that's normalised in the US.

As a pp said, walking anywhere in US is just not normal. 10 min walk? Why not get a cab? 25 mins - who on earth would walk that? I once told a hotel driver I planned to walk the 45 mins back - he insisted on picking me up and driving me. He couldn't understand why anyone would walk that far.
Walking is underrated though, we should all walk more

I used to work in research and physical activity. The key thing is whether you get your heart rate up so 150 minutes a week of heart raising activity. For me walking wouldn't do that so I used to run or do HIT training (actually if it was vigorous you only need to do 75 minutes). However, you can meet the 150 minute target and still be sedentary which I definitely was/am with a desk job.

bigfat yes I agree it needs to be 20 min walking in one go, not just accumulating steps by walking to and from fridge/ bathroom/ office etc. A brisk 20 min walk has been shown to have huge benefits in reducing blood pressure, risk of diabetes etc. with greatest benefit being in the group currently doing less than this (which is likely the majority).
If you are already fit and doing lots of exercise a 20 min walk on top of this won’t make as much impact compared to a sedentary person. But the fit and active group and not the ones being targetted with this type of message

No. If it's not a gym night, I get home around 6,have tea and sit at the table working again! I usually stop at 9 and go to bed. By Friday, I'm asleep by 9.

Think I might have hit 150 sat watching the news this week. Not sure I'm getting a reduction in blood pressure though.

@Ghislainedefeligonde

bigfat yes I agree it needs to be 20 min walking in one go, not just accumulating steps by walking to and from fridge/ bathroom/ office etc. A brisk 20 min walk has been shown to have huge benefits in reducing blood pressure, risk of diabetes etc. with greatest benefit being in the group currently doing less than this (which is likely the majority). If you are already fit and doing lots of exercise a 20 min walk on top of this won’t make as much impact compared to a sedentary person. But the fit and active group and not the ones being targetted with this type of message

I think even 10 min of brisk walking is good as that is what is targeted in the NHS Active 10 app.

@TravellingFrom

Come on. Most people do NOT do 20 mins of walking a day. Most people struggle to go over the 5k steps a day.

What he is doing is encouraging people to move because the majority of people do not do as much walking/exercise as that.
You can argue as much as you want that it’s not a lot, it’s not being active etc… that’s not the point of his recommendation.

Just like the 5 a day is basically what you can hope most people will achieve. It doesn’t mean that 5 a day is enough or that eating 5 bananas a day is ok. It’s just what is achievable for most.

This always surprises me. Apart from during Covid, where I averaged 63 steps a day only because I was forcing myself to use the upstairs toilet (and then needed an hour rest because I couldn't get enough air into my lungs), I've usually done 5000 by about 10.30am at work and about 3000 at home if I haven't gone out - in terms of minutes, I do a minimum of the recommended week's per day (and that's with what I'd describe as a really quiet day at work).

I definitely still need to do actual exercise on top - walking to and from bus stops and then round site during the day, nipping outside for some daylight 2-3 times a day and then walking down to the next bus stop to avoid waiting with large numbers of schoolkids isn't enough, IMO.

I suppose my perspective is skewed because I don't go from sofa to car to desk to car to sofa each day. Maybe it would be different if I did.

Most people struggle to go over the 5k steps a day.

Do we know that? I mean, where are the data?
This write up says different.