ACTIVITY trackers allow us to document everything from our sleep and steps to our heart rate. Increasingly, we rely on them for motivation, the data providing us with a sense of guilt and accomplishment often in equal measure.
For scientists, the information gleaned from trackers offers meaningful insights into how we move (or don’t), enabling them to drill down through data in a way that could change activity guidelines for maintaining and improving health.
“Wearable activity trackers can tell us a lot about the way study participants live their lives,” says Prof Mick Molloy, dean of the faculty of sports and exercise medicine at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. “They are not essential for everyone, but if you wear one yourself, it can provide prompts and reminders to stay on track with your healthy movement habits.”
In a recent study published in the journal , Dr Christian Brackenridge, a researcher at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, led an international team that examined the movement and activity patterns of 2,000 adults to determine the perfect daily balance of sitting, standing, and physical activity for optimum health.
Using trackers, Brackenridge monitored all movement over 24 hours and assessed results against cardiometabolic health markers such as waist circumference, BMI, blood glucose and cholesterol levels. Collectively, these markers are considered risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and heart attacks, and metabolic diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. Based on the top five to 10 people with the lowest cardiometabolic risk factors, he devised an “ideal balance of behaviours and physical activity” to ward off these risks and stay healthy.
His results showed that getting more sleep — up to eight hours and 20 minutes was considered healthy — and mild exertion delivered results. The benefits of interrupting sitting time with light activity — pottering around the house, walking from room to room — were pronounced.
“It’s the action of breaking up prolonged sitting down with regular light activity that is beneficial,” Brackenridge says. “We found that doing this around meal times seems to have a very positive outcome on metabolic health for people with type 2 diabetes.”
Researchers say that small, incidental daily habits ultimately bring the best results. This is welcome news for more reluctant exercisers or those baffled by the guidelines.
A 2023 research report conducted by the Institute of Public Health that the knowledge of physical activity in Ireland and in the North found that 54% of people in Ireland and 67% of people in the North remain unsure about how much weekly activity — 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise — is needed to maintain or improve health.
Yet, says Molloy, the more scientifically based activity habits you can implement every day, the better for your waistline, health, and longevity: “Increasing even small amounts of general activity adds up to big benefits. You don’t have to go to the gym to improve your health.”
Here’s how to enhance your health every 24 hours:
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Around seven hours of sleep is often recommended for peak health. However, in Brackenridge’s study, participants with the healthiest cardiometabolic profile allowed themselves an indulgent eight hours and 20 minutes of sleep a night.
Consistently getting too much or too little sleep is associated with a higher risk of ill health. A study at University College London, published in PLOS Medicine that analysed the impact of sleep duration on the health of more than 7,000 men and women aged 50-70, found that getting five hours of sleep or less at age 50 meant people were 40% more likely to be diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases over 25 years, compared to those who slept up to seven hours a night.
The less time we spend sitting and lying down (when not sleeping), the better. In the latest study, sitting longer than six hours was associated with less optimal cardiovascular and metabolic health outcomes.
High blood pressure, cholesterol, and other cardiometabolic risk factors become considerable if you sit for 10 hours daily but reach concerningly high levels if you sit for 12.1 hours in every 24-hour cycle.
“Our grandparents didn’t sit much,” Molloy says. “Prolonged sitting is a habit we need to reverse and if you can stand up and move around as often as possible, your health will improve.”
Brackenridge found the optimum time on your feet to be five hours and 10 minutes, but anything more than 2.6 hours of standing each day is associated with better health outcomes.
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VILPA stands for ‘vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity’ and is considered the non-exerciser version of HIIT, which bursts of huffing and puffing that last 10-60 seconds. This is not structured hardcore exercise such as interval training but daily activity that imitates some of the physiological effects. Think of playing high-energy games with the kids, running for the bus or climbing the stairs.
“Hitting a brisk walking pace for 20-30 seconds several times a day is good,” Molloy says.
In a Nature study involving 25,241 non-exercisers, researchers showed that just three to four daily bouts of high-effort activity during daily tasks significantly reduced the risk of premature death.
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In a tracking study published in March, Emmanuel Stamatakis, professor of physical activity, lifestyle, and population health at the University of Sydney, found that a daily total of 64 minutes of walking steps to be a level that enhanced the overall health of his participants.
“You do not have to go out for an hour-long hike each day,” says Prof Stamatakis. “The walking activity accumulated by participants was incidental, the kind you clock up in everyday activity.”
In steps, this equates to about 6,000-8,000 a day, however he says that anything above a baseline 2,200 steps a day is associated with a lower risk of early death.
Running, even for a bus or chasing kids around the park, can potentially affect your wellbeing if done daily. In his recent paper, Stamatikis reported that “any amount of regular running is associated with better cardiometabolic health”.
You don’t need to schedule a weekly 5km to make a difference.
“Your best bet is to run for one to two minutes and build up the number of times you do that in a day,” Stamatikis said.
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Marching up and down stairs has been associated with improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels and helping to lower blood pressure.
“For someone who doesn’t consider themselves an exerciser, stair walking is tremendously effective,” Dr Stamatakis says. “Going up and down a few flights with effort for a total of five minutes is a good target.”
