Every Move Counts

An app makes performance nutrition easier, every move counts when it comes to heart health and your weekly recommendations.

The Rundown

Fuel Focus. The Fuelin app is designed for triathletes chasing peak performance and those of us who just want to eat better while training. Based on your goals and training program (it currently works with TrainingPeaks, Today’s Plan and Final Surge), the app designs an easy to follow traffic light system that guides you on your nutrition before, during and after your workout sessions. It will tell you when, how much and what type of nutrition you should consume to optimize your performance. You can also find recipes in the app and easily track your macro targets through integration with MyFitnessPal and LoseIt.

Every Move Counts. A new wearables study out of the University of Sydney has offered solid evidence that short bouts of incidental activity or the kind of movement we do as part of daily living could reduce risk of heart attack, stroke and even premature death. But, the length of activity and intensity matters.

In collaboration with researchers from universities across the UK, the Sydney-led team used wrist-worn wearables data from the UK Biobank, along with machine learning to analyze seven-day incidental physical activity patterns of more than 25,000 adults aged 42 to 78, down to a ten second time window. 

Then they linked these activity patterns with participants’ health records and followed them for close to eight years to discover how length and intensity of physical activity bouts were linked to health. This group of people self-reported no participation in exercise or sport. 

Here's what the researchers found:

-Less than 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activity was associated with a steep decrease in major cardiac events and death by any cause. 

-Longer bouts of activity were better, for example, two minutes versus 30 seconds, regardless of total activity levels.

-The higher the percentage of vigorous activity in each burst of movement the better the outcome. People who were working hard enough that having a conversation was difficult for at least 15% of the activity (about 10 seconds per minute) experienced the greatest benefit. 

-If the 15% vigorous activity rule was applied, bouts of less than one minute also had benefits. 

Lead author, Dr. Matthew Ahmadi, sums it up this way, “This study suggests people could potentially reduce their risk of major cardiac events by engaging in daily living activities of at least moderate intensity where they are ideally moving continuously for at least one to three minutes at a time. In fact, it appears that this can have comparable health benefits to longer bouts lasting five to ten minutes.”

While the study is observational and can’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship, the team’s use of the Biobank data did allow them to account for diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, sleep and sedentary time. They also excluded those who had a cardiac event within five years of the wearables measurement and those who self-reported poor health. 

What is most significant about the study is that it offers direct evidence that movement doesn’t have to be completed in continuous 10 minute bouts to be beneficial. 

Extra Point

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