People mislead themselves that they are doing the recommended amount of fitness training, new research has shown, with just five per cent of Brits hitting NHS exercise targets.

Despite the fact that a third of Brits claiming to do enough exercise, one in 20 falls short of the recommended 30 minutes a day, five days a week, the annual Health Survey for England (HSE) has revealed.
The HSE surveyed 15,000 adults and asked how much moderate exercise they had taken.

While 38 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women thought they had hit the recommended target, when a representative sample of the interviewees were given an accelerometer to wear for a week the results showed a different picture.

Tim Straughan, chief executive of the NHS information centre, said the findings were worrying.

"There is a stark mismatch between how much adults say they are doing and what they are doing in reality," he added.

Concept2 recommends regular exercise to maintain overall fitness, manage weight loss, reduce stress and lower the risk of many life-threatening conditions.