Life expectancy can be lengthened depending on how quickly you walk, health experts have said.
The faster you walk, the longer you live regardless of your body weight, according to a new report.
Looking at data from nearly 500,000 people, underweight people who walk slowly have the lowest life expectancy – 64 for men and 72 for women.
The average life expectancy in the UK is 79 for men and nearly 82 for women.
It is the first time that research has connected the speed someone walks to their mortality.
Professor Tom Yates from the University of Leicester said: ‘Our findings could help clarify the relative importance of physical fitness compared to body weight on life expectancy of individuals.
‘In other words, the findings suggest that perhaps physical fitness is a better indicator of life expectancy than body mass index (BMI), and that encouraging the population to engage in brisk walking may add years to their lives.’
The research took data from the UK Biobank of 474,919 people across the country and was analysed by the National Institute for Health Research, Leicester Hospitals and the Universities of Leicester and Loughborough.
Leicester Diabetes Centre clinical epidemiologist Dr Francesco Zaccardi said: ‘Studies published so far have mainly shown the impact of body weight and physical fitness on mortality in terms of relative risk, for example a 20 per cent relative increase of risk of death for every 5 kilograms per metres squared increase, compared to a reference value of a BMI of 25 kilograms per metres squared (the threshold BMI between normal weight and overweight).
‘However, it is not always easy to interpret a “relative risk”. Reporting in terms of life expectancy, conversely, is easier to interpret and gives a better idea of the separate and joint importance of body mass index and physical fitness.’
Last year, Professor Yates and his team showed that middle-aged people who reported that they are slow walkers were at higher risk of heart-related disease compared to the general population.
The study, which also used data from the UK Biobank, showed that slow walkers were twice as likely to have a heart-related death as fast walkers, even when other risk factors such as smoking and body mass index were taken into account.