Don't give your fitness tracker up, 20 minutes of walking could save your life

Survey states half of people ditch their activity wearable, don't be one of them
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Good news: Walking for just 20 minutes can help you live longer.

Great news: It's easy to motivate yourself into walking more by strapping a fitness tracker onto your wrist.

The walking 20 minutes to extend your life claim comes from a research study at Cambridge University, which gathered data from 334,161 respondents over a period of 12 years. The study claims that you're up to 30% more likely to live longer if you incorporate just 20 minutes of moderate exercise into your daily routine.

Tech assistance: The best fitness trackers you can buy

The Cambridge researchers calculated that 337,000 of the 9.2 million deaths that occurred in Europe in 2008 could be attributed to obesity but the number of people who died due to inactivity was around double that at 676,000. It claims just 20 minutes of walking could cut this figure by over 7%.

"The results of this study are a clear reminder that being regularly physically active can reduce the risk of dying from coronary heart disease," said June Davison, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation. "The research suggests that just a modest increase in physical activity can have health benefits. Adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, carrying it out in sessions of 10 minutes or more."

Check out our guide to using your fitness tracker to actually get fit. Research by US firm Endeavour Partners found that a third of consumers who bought a wearable product stopped using it within 6 months.

Don't be a quitter - it's easier than ever to lose weight using wearable tech.


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Paul Lamkin

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Wareable Media Group co-CEO Paul launched Wareable with James Stables in 2014, after working for a variety of the UK's biggest and best consumer tech publications including Pocket-lint, Forbes, Electric Pig, Tech Digest, What Laptop, T3 and has been a judge for the TechRadar Awards. 

Prior to founding Wareable, and subsequently The Ambient, he was the senior editor of MSN Tech and has written for a range of publications.


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