A brisk daily walk of just 20 minutes could add years to your life, scientists said last night.
In a stark warning against couch-potato lifestyles, they said lack of exercise killed twice as many people as obesity.
The Cambridge University study of 334,000 people found that even a modest amount of activity prolonged life. And the least fit had the most to gain.
Twenty minutes of walking a day � or its equivalent � would cut their risk of premature death by almost a third.
The researchers could not say how much extra life could be gained through using exercise in this way to move from the �inactive� to the �moderately inactive� part of the population.
But even the obese could expect a 16 per cent reduced risk of dying early. Those of healthy weight could profit by 30 per cent.
Ulf Ekelund, who led the study, said: �This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive.
�Although we found just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this � physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life.�
The researchers estimated that 337,000 of 9.2million recorded deaths of European men and women were attributable to obesity. But twice this number � around 676,000 deaths � could be blamed on inactivity.
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