A study by Fitbit Inc, an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California, has shown that Pakistani men put in the least amount of exercise.
The company in its study logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data from tens of millions of people from all over the world using its products, which include activity trackers and wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics involved in fitness.
Sharing the results of the study, AFP English Desk editor in Washington, Issam Ahmed wrote on Twitter: “Male Pakistani Fitbit users put in the least exercise compared to counterparts around the world, and the results show it (lower RHR = better). Suspect Pakistani Fitbit users are well off but not active, i.e. the device is a rich guy’s toy, not used by actually active people.”
Male Pakistani Fitbit users put in the least exercise compared to counterparts around the world, and the results show it (lower RHR = better). Suspect Pakistani Fitbit users are well off but not active, ie the device is a rich guy’s toy, not used by actually active people pic.twitter.com/HZCfSSS4Vk
— Issam Ahmed (@IssamAhmed) September 11, 2018
The graph shared by Ahmed presents the activity levels (horizontal axis) against their average resting heart rate (vertical) and shows that Pakistanis have the worst activity level and a sky-high resting heart rate (RHR).
Meanwhile, the rest of the graph presents an interesting variation in heart rates.
According to Fitbit’s director of data science Hulya Emir-Farinas, this is because there are other factors at play such as their nutrition, BMIs, practices, medication and genetics.
In general, Europe beats the world.
“They have designed their cities so that there will be more physical activity. People have to walk more just do normal activities: going to the grocery store, going to work, they have to walk a little,” Emir Farinas says. For example, the graph shows citizens in Sweden clock in almost 90 minutes of activity a day.
The scientists note that Qatar seems to be an outlier. Seventy percent of the Qatari population is obese — yet their RHR is an impressive 62. However, Emir-Farinas’s theory is that huge numbers of them are on blood-pressure and heart medication.