CDC splits the adult numbers across two public pages: Adult Activity: An Overview and Physical Activity and Your Weight and Health. Both rest on the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition. The minutes below are the federal wording; open those URLs for the current tables.
“For overall health, adults need at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity.”, CDC, Physical Activity and Your Weight and Health
How the minutes add up
CDC’s adult overview says 150 minutes can be 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, and that the week can be broken into smaller chunks. Some activity is better than none. Muscle-strengthening days work legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms. Older adults add balance work on the older-adult overview.
| Pattern | Aerobic | Muscle |
|---|---|---|
| Example 1 | 150 minutes moderate (brisk walking) | 2 or more days, all major groups |
| Example 2 | 75 minutes vigorous (jogging or running) | 2 or more days, all major groups |
| Example 3 | Equivalent mix of moderate and vigorous | 2 or more days, all major groups |
Moderate vs vigorous, in CDC’s talk test
On the weight-and-health page, moderate-intensity means breathing and heart rate are noticeably faster, and you can still hold a conversation. CDC examples include walking briskly (a 15-minute mile), light yard work, and biking at a casual pace. Vigorous-intensity means you are breathing too hard to converse: jogging, swimming laps, jumping rope, most competitive sports.
- Open Adult Activity: An Overview and copy the weekly pattern that matches how you already move.
- Use the talk test on Physical Activity and Your Weight and Health to label a walk as moderate or vigorous.
- Match a local paved loop from the Orlando walks lesson. Lake Eola’s 0.9-mile sidewalk is one city-published distance.
- For muscle-strengthening days, read the federal examples (bands, weights, body-weight moves). Neighborhood-center gymnasiums and the YMCA page are listed in the rec lesson; schedules stay on those pages.
The calorie table on the CDC page
CDC prints approximate calories for a 154 lb (70 kg) person for 30 minutes and for an hour. Walking at 3.5 mph is listed at 140 calories per 30 minutes for that reference weight; walking at 4.5 mph is listed as vigorous at 230 per 30 minutes. CDC notes calories burned are higher for people who weigh more than 154 lb and lower for people who weigh less. Those cells are CDC’s table, adapted from Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005. Read them on cdc.gov rather than as a personal prescription.
Activity and weight, in CDC’s own sentence
The weight-and-health page states that most weight loss occurs from decreasing calories, and that regular physical activity is how people keep loss off. It also says you may need more than the recommended minutes to maintain weight, and that the exact amount varies from person to person. Questions about your own minutes belong with a clinician; the federal page is the citation.