With help from 2,000 Framingham Heart Study participants, BU researchers studied how much being sedentary, walking, and routine exercise impacts fitness.

The health benefits of aerobic exercise cannot be over emphasized in preventing cardiometabolic diseases. Exercise interventions are also commonly proposed to help lose weight and seem efficacious for weight loss maintenance. In the U.S., 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day for five days per week (150 minutes total per week) is recommended for health benefits and possibly improved weight control. To support weight loss efforts, the recommended dose increases to 200 to 300 minutes per week for individuals with overweight/obesity. However, when exercise interventions are prescribed without reductions in caloric intake, they often result in less weight loss than expected. Thus, the use of exercise alone as an effective strategy for weight loss can be challenged.

Take a work break: A small, new study suggests that getting out of your chair every half hour may help improve your blood sugar levels and your overall health.

Every hour spent sitting or lying down increases the risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, the study authors said. But moving around during those sedentary hours is an easy way to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce the odds of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a group of conditions that can lead to heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other health problems.

“Breaking a sedentary lifestyle has positive metabolic benefits in free-living humans, thus it is beneficial to not sit the whole day — get up and move,” said senior study author Dr. Erik Naslund. He is a professor in the department of clinical sciences at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.