Why are Britons failing to do enough exercise?

The British Heart Foundation’s claim that more 20 million people in the UK are physically inactive is as shocking as it is depressing.

So, too, is the charity’s warning that this inactivity is costing the NHS around £1.2bn each year. According to its report there’s also a clear gender difference with women 36 per cent more likely than men to be classified as physically inactive – a staggering 11.8 million women compared with 8.3 million men.

It defines “inactive” as not achieving the Government guidelines for physical activity which equates to 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week and strength activities on at least two days a week. By “moderate” activity we’re talking about things like hiking, volleyball, or pushing a lawn mower while out in the garden.

The BHF’s analysis underscores the scale of our increasingly sedentary lifestyle – with the average man in this country now spending a fifth of his lifetime sitting.

This isn’t the first time the state of the nation’s health has been exposed but the problem is that reports like this keep falling on deaf ears.

It’s estimated that more than five million deaths worldwide can be attributed to physical inactivity, making it one of the top 10 leading causes of death.

Yet despite this, Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, says levels of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour in the UK remain “stubbornly” high.

“Combined, these two risk factors present a substantial threat to our cardiovascular health and risk of early death.

“Evidence shows keeping physically active can reduce the risk of heart and circulatory disease by as much as 35 per cent and risk of early death by as much as 30 per cent.”

The report makes stark reading but Dr David Broom, senior lecturer in Physical Activity, Health and Exercise Science at Sheffield Hallam University, claims the real picture could be even worse.

“Many of these studies involve self-reporting questionnaires about the amount of activity undertaken. But a lot of people either lie or over inflate the amount of activity they actually do, so the situation could potentially be even worse,” he says.

“Effectively what we have done is engineered physical activity out of our lifestyles and taken the path of least resistance.”

He believes there are less opportunities for people to do exercise which has coincided with greater access to more, and unhealthier, food, fuelling an obesity epidemic the country still hasn’t effectively addressed.

“Our culture has changed. When I was a lad my mum had to drag me back inside from playing in the park with my friends. These days parents are more likely to have to drag their children away from the TV and their Play Stations and get them to go outside.”

Dr Broom say there needs to be better opportunities for people, both young and old, to do more exercise and he wants to see greater emphasis on the health benefits it brings.

At the same time, he says people need to start helping themselves. “Our jobs have become increasingly sedentary and as a country we need to make a conscious effort to do more exercise.”

He believes the growing use of mobile phone apps that record our day-today activity is an effective way of encouraging people to do this and can help in the battle to improve the nation’s health – a battle that it’s vital we win.

“It’s not only our health that’s at stake but this impacts on the economy, too, because it’s wasting valuable NHS resources which could be put to better use.”