Women can exercise less often than men and still see greater health benefits, new study shows

Women may see greater health benefits from exercising regularly than men do, according to a recent study.

Women who engaged in 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, weekly were 24% less likely to die when compared to women who didn't exercise regularly within that same time period, according to the paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In contrast, men who exercised for the same amount of time each week had only a 15% lower chance of dying than those who didn't.

The study analyzed data of over 400,000 U.S. adults that spanned from 1997 to 2017. The exercise habits of those individuals were self-reported.

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Researchers also found that women were able to see greater health benefits with less exercise than their male counterparts.

Men who engaged in about five hours of moderate to vigorous exercise each week lowered their chances of dying by 18% in comparison to men who didn't. Women were able to see the same reduction in their risk of death with only about 2.5 hours of the same level of exercise.

"I think what this study shows is that there is something to it, and this study helps open up doors for very specific research to understand why there is a difference," according to Dr. Beteal Ashinne, a non-invasive cardiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine at UHealth, who wasn't involved in the study.

The reason why women may have stronger benefits from regular exercise than men isn't clear, though it's possible it boils down to differences in anatomy, the study's researchers told CBS News.

"They noted that men on average have proportionately