Research
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Obesity moderates the dose-response relationship for cognitive benefits, with overweight/obese older adults reaching maximal cognitive benefits at lower exercise doses (~600 METs-min/week) than those with healthy BMI.
If you are overweight or obese, you may achieve maximum cognitive benefits with around 600 METs-min of exercise per week. Pushing beyond this may not yield additional cognitive gains and could be unrealistic. Start with moderate doses.
GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Our results suggest that overweight/obese older adults may benefit from lower exercise levels than the recommended for the general population... the predicted dose at which the maximum effect was observed for this subgroup was ~600 METs-min per week
Why this rating
Based on meta-CART analysis of the 44 RCTs.
Source
Optimal dose and type of exercise to improve cognitive function in older adults: A systematic review and bayesian model-based network meta-analysis of RCTs
Daniel Gallardo‐Gómez et al. · Ageing Research Reviews · 2022
DOI 10.1016/j.arr.2022.101591
Meta-analysis · 44 studiesCited 243×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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