Bengalureans most active, 'fittest' among Indians

Sweat it out

Bengaluru has emerged as the fittest city having burnt upwards of 310 calories a day in a countrywide study by HealthifyMe, a mobile health and fitness app. The city beat Ghaziabad (304 calories a day), Pune, Mumbai and Dehradun that recorded an average of 302 cal a day.

Co-founded in 2012 by Tushar Vashisht and Sachin Shenoy, and incubated by Microsoft Accelerator, HealthifyMe claims to have over 16 million users in 300+ cities with over 500 coaches.

Kolkata finished at the bottom on the city list, burning just 267 calories a day.

The study, dubbed “Insights on Physical Activity Levels of Indians”, also revealed that 45% of Indian women and 37% of Indian men were “inactive” in 2019. They burnt less than 50% of their calorie burn budget in a day.

Interestingly, 42% of men were “active”, burning more than 80% of their calorie burn budget. Twenty-one per cent were “mildly active”, having burnt between 50% and 80% of their calorie burn budget. Among women, only 33% were “active” and 22% “mildly active”.

Calorie budget is a measure of the number of calories that a person should burn through physical activity, daily. “The average calorie burn budget of Indian men is 476 calories a day vs. women’s 374 calories per day, out of which men burn 89% (424) while women burn just 76% (284),” says the study based on the app-users’ daily activity.

The study sprang a surprise on age-related activity analysis: Those between 20 and 30 years of age are more inactive (41%) than those in their 30’s (38%) and 40’s (37%). “Activity levels further went down among people in their 50s with 48% people remaining inactive.”

Popular workouts

Walking and running were the exercises of choice across age groups. Other top activities were treadmill, planks, bicycling, pushups and yoga.

“Standing torso twist/spinal rotation and skiing were some of the exercises that helped people burn as much as 6,000 calories a day.”

Weekends were the least active days. Sunday was the fattiest day for most Indians with an average fat burn of 28% and calorie burn of 302 a day. Friday was the most active day with an average calorie burn of 335 a day.

The analysis was based on data collected through the app from over 12 million users. The data relied on activity auto-synced via fitness-bands/smartphone apps and self-reported workouts.