Longevity
Physical activity can add years to people’s lives, according to an analysis from the National Cancer Institute in PLOS Medicine, which included data on 650,000 people in six long-term studies and controlled for other factors that affect longevity. Those who exercised moderately (for instance, walking briskly 150 minutes a week) lived about four years longer, on average, than their sedentary counterparts. Even those who did modest amounts of exercise (such as 75 minutes of walking a week) lived nearly two years longer. And the benefit was seen in the obese as well as in thinner people.