A nation of couch potatoes… we walk less than half a mile a day
WE walk less than half a mile a day on average, a report reveals today.
British adults also spend two-and-a-half months of the year sitting down, contributing to couch potato lifestyles that greatly increase the risk of cancer, heart disease and early death, experts said.
Analysis by the British Heart Foundation found that almost half of women and a third of men are inactive.
This means doing less than 30 minutes of moderate exercise a week including brisk walking, cycling or heavy housework.
Adults walked an average of almost three- quarters of a mile per day in the 1970s, when cars were used far less. The report also estimates the average man sits down for 78 days a year – a fifth of his lifetime. Women sit down slightly less, 74 days, but do fewer hours of physical activity. A shocking 46.1 per cent are inactive compared to 32 per cent of men.
Dr Mike Knapton, medical director of the BHF, said: ‘Physical inactivity is one of the most significant global health crises of the moment.’
He added: ‘Making physical activity easier and more accessible for all is of paramount importance if we are to reduce the burden of inactivity-related ill health. Levels of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour in the UK remain stubbornly high, and combined these two risk factors present a substantial threat to our cardiovascular health and risk of early death.’
The report analysed figures from the Government’s Health Survey for England, an annual lifestyle questionnaire given to 8,000 adults.
Research by Public Health England in 2014 blamed sedentary lifestyles for as many as one in six deaths.
Inactivity has been linked to increased rates of cancer, heart disease, dementia, thinning of the bones and arthritis.