Exercise can prevent various heart diseases. However, there is a sex difference. It turned out that men have to double their exercise time to get the same benefits as women.
A research team at Xiamen University in China said on the 27th, local time, in the international journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, "After analyzing physical activity data from more than 80,000 people, we confirmed that women could lower their risk of heart disease, including coronary artery disease, by 30% with about 4 hours (250 minutes) of exercise per week, while men had to reach 9 hours (530) minutes per week to achieve the same effect."
The team pulled data on 80,243 people (34,257 men and 45,986 women) from the UK Biobank, which contains medical records and genetic analysis information for 500,000 Britons, and tracked the relationship between exercise volume and the risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD). The average age of participants was 61.
Coronary heart disease is cited as a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-or-higher physical activity for all adults, regardless of sex, to prevent cardiovascular disease. Moderate physical activity refers to exercise that makes you slightly short of breath or feel a bit strained, such as brisk walking, cycling, or light jogging.
Analysis found that women who exercised 150 minutes a week had a 22% lower risk of developing heart disease within eight years than women who did not, while men saw only a 17% reduction. Even with the same amount of exercise, women saw greater health benefits than men. Previous analyses of self-reported data also suggested greater benefits for women, but this study verified it using actual wrist-worn activity tracker data.
Among a group of 5,169 patients already suffering from coronary artery disease, differences by sex were also clear in mortality. The mortality rate for women who exercised at least 150 minutes per week was 1.76%, far lower than for women who exercised less than that (9.15%). By contrast, among male patients, the mortality rate was 9.38% for those who exercised at least 150 minutes, and 15.13% for those who did not, a gap that was not as large as among women. Women who exercised at least 150 minutes per week had a threefold lower risk of death than men.
The researchers said differences in metabolic activity, such as sex hormones, muscle fiber composition, and glucose breakdown capacity, likely influenced the sex gap in exercise benefits. Jiajin Chen, a professor at Xiamen University who led the study, explained, "Estrogen, a female hormone, may promote fat burning during exercise, and differences in respiratory, metabolic, and strength efficiency between men and women may be factors that create differences in effects even with the same amount of exercise."
Emily Lau, a women's cardiovascular specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) under Harvard Medical School, said in an editorial in the same journal, "This study shows that a single standard does not work for everyone," and "We need to reflect strategies that distinguish between men and women in actual guidelines and develop sex-specific customized Arbitration Act."
There are limits to this study, however. Ersilia DeFilippis, a cardiology professor at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, noted, "About 93% of participants are white, and most are economically affluent and well educated," and said, "Future studies need to reflect racial and socioeconomic diversity."
References
Nature Cardiovascular Research (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-025-00732-z
Nature Cardiovascular Research (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-025-00734-x