If you have diabetes and struggle to fit exercise into your busy schedule, there’s encouraging news.
A new study has found that even cramming your weekly workouts into just one or two days—often called being a “weekend warrior”—can still offer big health benefits, including a lower risk of dying from heart disease.
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at data from over 51,000 adults with diabetes who took part in the U.S. National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2018.
Researchers from institutions including Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston University analyzed how different physical activity patterns related to deaths from all causes, heart disease, and cancer.
Current health guidelines suggest that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week, ideally spread across three or more days.
But not everyone can manage that, especially those balancing work, family, and health challenges like diabetes.
To explore this, participants were divided into four groups: inactive (no exercise), insufficiently active (less than 150 minutes per week), weekend warriors (150 minutes or more per week over just one or two days), and regularly active (150 minutes or more spread out over three or more days).
The results were striking. Compared to people who didn’t exercise at all, those who exercised—even a little—had a lower risk of death. Weekend warriors had a 21% lower risk of dying from any cause and a 33% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Even people who spread their workouts out more regularly saw benefits, with a 17% drop in overall death risk and a 19% lower chance of cardiovascular death.
Interestingly, exercise didn’t seem to make as much of a difference when it came to cancer deaths.
The main takeaway? For people with diabetes, getting active—regardless of how it’s scheduled—can significantly reduce the risk of heart-related death. So whether you’re squeezing your workouts into the weekend or spreading them out during the week, moving your body still makes a meaningful difference for your health.
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