Healthy Lifestyle & Life Expectancy — The Evidence

See how five low-risk habits were linked to years of life in a large US study — a population finding, not a personal forecast.

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Sex

Which of these low-risk factors do you meet?

You meet

0 of 5

low-risk lifestyle factors.

What the study found (population average)

In the Li 2018 cohort, women who met all five factors had a projected life expectancy at age 50 of about 93.1 years — around 14.0 years longer than those who met none (about 79.0 years).

Each square is a month of the ~14.0-year average gap the study reported between meeting all five factors and none. Tick all five to see it fill in.

This is a population-level association from one large study — not a prediction about you. It cannot tell any individual how long they will live, and the factors are correlated with many other advantages. Read it as encouragement that these habits mattered, on average, in this cohort.

Methodology

This tool reports a finding from Li et al., Circulation 2018 — a large, long-running study of US health professionals (the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study). The researchers defined five low-risk lifestyle factors and estimated life expectancy at age 50 by how many of them people met:

  • Never smoked
  • BMI 18.5–24.9
  • ≥ 30 minutes/day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity
  • Moderate alcohol — 5–15 g/day (women), 5–30 g/day (men)
  • High diet quality — top 40% on a validated diet score

At age 50, people meeting all five factors had a projected life expectancy about 14.0 years longer (women) and 12.2 years longer (men) than those meeting none. This tool counts the factors you meet and shows those published figures.

Why we don't show a number for 1–4 factors. The paper published exact projected figures only for the extremes (none and all five). It reported a graded relationship — more factors, more years — but did not tabulate the in-between values, so putting a precise number on "3 of 5" would be inventing data the study never published. We won't do that.

Interpreting your result — read this carefully

This is a population-level association, not a personal prediction. It describes what happened, on average, across tens of thousands of people in one cohort. It cannot tell you how long you will live — that depends on genetics, chance, healthcare, and much more that no lifestyle count captures.

It is also correlational. People who meet all five factors tend to differ in many other ways (income, education, healthcare access) that also affect lifespan, so not all of the difference is caused by the habits themselves. The honest takeaway is encouraging but modest: these habits were linked to meaningfully more years in this study, and they're worth doing for many reasons — but the number is not a forecast for you.

Limitations

  • Association, not causation, and not a prediction for any individual.
  • The cohort was mostly white US health professionals — it may not generalise to everyone.
  • "Moderate alcohol" is a narrow band, and both zero and higher intake carried more risk than moderate in the data. Nothing here is a reason to start or increase drinking.
  • Diet quality was measured with a specific validated score; a simple self-assessment is a rough proxy.
  • This is educational, not medical advice.

Sources

Pull the receipts — 1 cited source

FitTools · sources

  1. 01 Li Y, et al. Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population. Circulation 2018;138:345–355

Every formula cited ✓

Frequently asked questions

Can this predict how long I'll live?
No — and it deliberately doesn't try to. It reports a population-level association from one large study: people who met more of five healthy-lifestyle factors lived, on average, longer. It says nothing about any individual's lifespan, which depends on genetics, luck, healthcare and much more.
What are the five factors?
Never smoking; a BMI of 18.5–24.9; at least 30 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous activity; moderate alcohol intake (5–15 g/day for women, 5–30 g/day for men); and a diet-quality score in the top 40%. They come directly from the Li et al. 2018 study.
How big was the difference?
At age 50, participants meeting all five factors had a projected life expectancy about 14.0 years longer (women) and 12.2 years longer (men) than those meeting none. Those are the study's headline endpoint figures.
Why don't you show a number for 2, 3 or 4 factors?
Because the study only published exact projected figures for the extremes — none and all five. It reported a graded relationship (more factors, more years) but didn't tabulate the in-between values, so showing a precise number for those would be inventing data.
Does more alcohol mean more life?
No. The 'moderate' band is narrow, and the study noted that both zero and higher intake carried more risk than moderate. Nothing here is a reason to start or increase drinking — the alcohol factor is one small part of a whole-lifestyle picture.

Written and reviewed by Mathew Beale — MSc Biotechnology, University of Reading.

Last reviewed:

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