Research
Energy balance
Vigorous physical activity (VPA) provides significantly larger risk reductions for type 2 diabetes per unit of energy expenditure (MET h/week) compared to moderate or low-intensity activity.
If you can tolerate it, incorporating vigorous activity (like running or fast cycling) into your routine provides even greater diabetes protection per hour than moderate walking. However, moderate activity is still highly effective.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Benefits from VPA integrated over time to MET h/week were much larger, with a decrease in risk of type 2 diabetes of 56% (95% CI 16%, 77%) per 10 MET h/week increment.
Why this rating
Meta-analysis, but the VPA subgroup has wider confidence intervals (16%-77%) indicating more uncertainty than the main finding.
Source
Physical activity and incident type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
Andrea Smith et al. · Diabetologia · 2016
DOI 10.1007/s00125-016-4079-0
Meta-analysis · 28 studiesCited 430×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Engaging in 11.25 MET hours per week of leisure-time physical activity (equivalent to 150 minutes/week of moderate activity) reduces the risk of incident type 2 diabetes by 26% compared to being completely inactive.Strong
- Doubling the recommended physical activity dose (22.5 MET h/week) reduces type 2 diabetes risk by 36%, and high doses (60 MET h/week) reduce it by 53%, showing no plateau in benefits.Strong
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