There's 1440 minutes in a day...(Pinterest UGH)

There’s 1440 minutes in a day it only takes 30 minutes to exercise!

You see this all over the Health board on Pinterest sometimes it will say 10 minutes, sometimes as much as 60, either way it says the same thing “Everyone should carve out time in their day to do this.”

I don’t like this saying for many reasons, first it’s wrong and it shames people who don’t follow it.

I want to point out that yes there are 1,440 minutes in a day, scientifically this is correct. The Earth makes one full rotation every 24 hours, there’s 60 minutes in an hour, and therefore there are 1,440 minutes to one full rotation. The statement is wrong for other logical, sociological, scientific, and mathematical reasons.

So let’s do some more math!

(Don’t worry it will be easy math)

Enter average Joe

Average Joe is a lonely adult, he is unemployed, living off a trust fund that was left for him, and has no family or friends, nothing to do outside of taking care of himself. He may have nothing else to do but he still has two obligation to himself. Scientifically, to survive, Joe has to eat and he has to sleep. It is suggested that adults get 7-9 hours of sleep a day, we are going to use the 8 hour average. For food we’re going to give Joe only 30 minutes, 3 times a day, to prepare and eat his meals. We could include the time it takes to plan and shop for the meals but to keep it simple we’re going to assume Joe gets a meal plan and groceries delivered to him every morning. While we’re on the subject we’re going to assume that Joe also has a maid that cleans his house, just to keep things simple, so he doesn’t have to take time to do that either. Now for the math, 8 hours is 480 minutes, 30 minutes 3 times a day is 90 minutes. 480 minutes plus 90 minutes is 570 minutes. 1440 minutes minus 570 minutes is 870 minutes.

8x60=480

30x3=90

480+90=570

1440-570=870

870 ≠ 1440

Our average Joe does not have 1440 minutes to spare, reality says he only has 870 minutes a day to make time to exercise. Joe can take the time to do a 60 minute exercise session. Now, most people are not like Joe, most people have obligations outside of sleeping and eating. So moving on to part two of out math story.

Joe gets a JOB

Joe’s trust fund has been dwindling, he suddenly realizes that to keep the home he loves, and his precious maid, he needs to get a job. Through some special connections he manages to get a good full time job. The job is another 8 hours out of Joe’s day. He also has to take time for the commute, it’s a good 30 minute drive he takes to and from work. He still has to sleep and eat the same amount of time. So added to his day is another 480 minutes for the 8 hours of work and 60 minutes for the commute there and back. 480 plus 60 is 540. Subtract that from the leftover time after sleep and eating, so 870 minus 540 is 330.

480+60=540

870-540=330

330≠1440

Now 330 minutes is still enough time to exercise especially since still has no social life or other obligations but what if he wanted to find someone to love and start a family, part 3 starts.

Joe gets married and has a family

(No more math this part is more subjective)

Joe made some friends, met a girl, got married, and had some children. His wife is a stay at home mom that looks after the home, does the grocery shopping, raises the children, and other such things so the only Joe has to worry about is his health and his job. Out of the 330 minutes he has left in his day he has choices to make he can make the time to exercise, or spend time with his wife and children. He could watch a movie with them, play a board game, or just participate in some horseplay.

Some more scenarios

-What if Joe’s wife decided to start working? This scenario would suddenly add some more obligations to Joe’s day. (Such as house cleaning and caring for the children)

-Most people only work 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but what if Joe decides he wants to start his own business, his work days would be longer (sometimes 12 hours) and he would have to work more days during the week (6-7 instead of 5).

-What if Joe suddenly has to take a second Job to keep up with his lifestyle, or to pay for his children’s colleges. 

Conclusion

I guess my problem with this statement is that it is scientifically incorrect and it seems to forget that most people have obligations outside themselves. Every family is different. Yes people can squeeze a little bit of exercise into their day but not everyone has huge chunks of time to carve out of their day and sometimes that 10 minutes could be spent doing something more fulfilling than exercising. This statement should say something different more like:

You only have 1440 minutes in a day, spend them wisely