53% Of Indian Women And 44% Of Indian Men Are ‘Physically Inactive’

Eye opening statistics from a fitness app about how inactive Indian males and females are. Technology is not just about personal fitness but also about the countries health trends.

Sunday is the least active day for Indians

India’s largest health and fitness app from over 1 million users, reveal that almost 44% of Indian men and 53% of Indian women are ‘inactive’, burning less than 50% of their calorie burn budget in a day. Only 34% men are ‘active’, burning more than 80% of their calorie burn budget while 22% are ‘mildly active’, burning between 50% to 80% of their calorie burn budget. When it comes to women, only 24% are ‘active’ and 22% ‘mildly active’.

Calorie budget is the number of calories that a

person should burn through physical activity, daily. The average calorie burn budget of Indian men is 476 calories per day vs. women’s 374 calories per day, out of which men burn 55% (262) while women burn just 44% (165). The silver lining is that Indians are improving their activity levels. Compared to 2017, Indian men burn an average of 19% more calories and walk 15% more steps daily this year. Similarly, Indian women burn 19% more calories and walk 13% more daily, than last year.

Males on an average burn more than females:

The data shows that on average, Indian women burn markedly lower number of calories than their male counterparts with males burning around 33% higher than females on a daily basis in both 2017 and 2018. Even when comparing steps, males take an average of 5100 steps per day as compared to females who take ~3800 steps on an average per day in 2018.

Bangalore and Gurgaon continue to be the most fitness conscious

Bangalore has taken the pole position this time burning upwards of 420 calories/day compared to 322 calories/day last year, an improvement of 30%. It is followed by Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad that continue to steal a march over other regions, again making it to the list of fittest cities. Their neighbor Delhi however continues to be amongst the least fit cities, with an average calorie burn of 380 per day.

Interestingly, Pune has shown the greatest improvement (33% increase in daily burn from 2017) from being one of least fit cities to becoming one of the fittest. Lucknow, on the other hand has witnessed a decline in its position, getting relegated to the bottom of the list, despite burning 23% more calories than last year. This is owing to every other city stepping up their game.

Tier 1 cities more active than Tier 2

Also, Tier 1 cities are more active than Tier 2 cities, burning 407 calories in a day vs. 371 in Tier 2. Moreover compared to last year, Tier 1 cities have shown an overall increase of 12% in daily calorie burn as compared to an increase of only 5% shown by Tier 2 cities. The increased calorie burn of Tier 1 cities is also reflected by the fact that on average, people in Tier 1 cities take almost 600 steps more per day than those in Tier 2.

North vs. South

In the battle of North vs. South, the South of India marginally trumps the North with a 6% higher average calorie burn per day. South Indians burn 408 calories (29% higher than last year) on an average daily and North Indians burn around 382 calories (24% more than 2017) daily.

The fact that South Indians are more active is also reflected in the number of steps taken by both. South Indians take more than 4300 steps on an average day which is slightly higher than the 4200 taken by North Indians on an average.

Walking is the most popular workout

Walking and running continue to be the exercises of choice across the length and breadth of the country. Other top activities include push-ups, rope skipping, yoga (particularly Surya Namaskar), gym exercises like treadmill and cross trainer and home exercises like planks and abs crunch.

Weekends are the least active days

While some people see Sunday as the day to work out more and complete their weekly exercise routine, for most Indians Sunday is meant for relaxation. Burn levels go down by 13% to 360 calories on Sunday, when compared to weekdays where burn levels are upwards of 400 calories on an average.

Tushar Vashisht, Co-founder & CEO, HealthifyMe said, “It is a matter of grave concern that almost half of all Indians are inactive and burn less than even 50% of their calorie budget. Inactivity and unhealthy food habits can lead to several lifestyle diseases like obesity, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. From our experience, we are already witnessing an increase of such cases amongst people as early as in their 30s. Everyday physical activity and good eating habits can play a crucial role in avoiding and even reversing such diseases. It is time that we start taking ‘working out’ more seriously.”

Methodology

The analysis is based on data collected through HealthifyMe app from over 1 million users. The data is based on the activity auto-synced via fitness-bands / smartphone apps as well as self-reported workouts. Age split of the audience - 38% are less than 25 years old, 44% are between 25-35 years old and 18% are more than 35 years old.

Cities included in the report were the top active cities on our app (showing the highest count of workout logs). All population averages are computed for day level logs across users in the segment.