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Which habits add years? Lifestyle longevity calculator

Pick the option that fits you for each habit. Every choice shows how many years the study behind it links with that habit, and the total adds them up.

Your lifestyle adds

+5 years 1 month

Together, your picks add about 5 years 1 month of life expectancy.

Compared with a baseline where every habit counts as zero: never smoked, no alcohol, 7–8 hours’ sleep, and no spicy food, coffee, nuts, steps or exercise.

See my full estimate
Spicy foodadds: +15 months

Eating spicy food on three or more days a week went with a 14% lower death rate over about seven years than eating it less than once a week. Lv et al., BMJ (2015), 487,375 adults in China · doi:10.1136/bmj.h3942 (opens in a new tab)

Smokingno change: ±0 months

People who smoked lost at least ten years of life expectancy; those who quit before 40 avoided about 90% of the extra risk. Jha et al., NEJM (2013), 216,917 US adults · doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1211128 (opens in a new tab)

Alcoholno change: ±0 months

Death rates rose once drinking passed about 100 g of alcohol a week (roughly seven US drinks); the heaviest drinkers had 4–5 fewer years of life expectancy at 40. Wood et al., The Lancet (2018), 599,912 current drinkers in 83 studies · doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30134-X (opens in a new tab)

Daily stepsadds: +18 months

More steps a day went with steadily lower death rates, levelling off at about 6,000–8,000 steps for people over 60 and 8,000–10,000 for younger adults. Paluch et al., The Lancet Public Health (2022), 47,471 adults in 15 cohorts · doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00302-9 (opens in a new tab)

Exerciseadds: +22 months

Even 75 minutes of brisk walking a week went with 1.8 more years of life expectancy after 40, and more activity with larger gains. Moore et al., PLOS Medicine (2012), 654,827 adults in 6 cohorts · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001335 (opens in a new tab)

Sleepno change: ±0 months

Compared with sleeping in the middle range, short sleepers had a 12% higher risk of dying during the studies and long sleepers a 30% higher risk. Cappuccio et al., Sleep (2010), 1.38 million people in 16 studies · doi:10.1093/sleep/33.5.585 (opens in a new tab)

Coffeeadds: +7 months

Coffee drinkers had lower all-cause death rates than non-drinkers, with the biggest difference at about three cups a day. Poole et al., BMJ (2017), an umbrella review of 201 meta-analyses · doi:10.1136/bmj.j5024 (opens in a new tab)

Nutsno change: ±0 months

People who ate nuts every day had a 20% lower death rate, over up to 30 years, than people who ate none. Bao et al., NEJM (2013), 118,962 US nurses and health professionals · doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1307352 (opens in a new tab)

These studies show links, not proof. They followed large groups of people and compared those with different habits. People who walk more, for example, may also differ in many other ways, so each number is an association — not a promise of extra years.

The effects overlap. Steps and exercise measure related things, and healthy habits tend to go together, so adding them up can count the same benefit twice. Treat the total as an illustration, not medical advice.

How the years are worked out

Where a study reports a hazard ratio (HR), its effect in years is −11.5 × ln(HR), the “speed of ageing” conversion described by Spiegelhalter in the BMJ (2012). Studies that report years of life expectancy are used as published. Your picks are saved only in this page’s address after the # sign, so you can bookmark or share them.

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Frequently asked questions

What does the total mean?

It's the sum of the study-based effects of your picks, compared with a baseline where every habit counts as zero. With the typical answer for each habit it comes to +5 years 1 month. It shows what each habit is worth in the research, not how long you will live.

How are study results turned into years?

Most studies report a hazard ratio — how much higher or lower the death rate was in one group than another. We convert it with −11.5 × ln(HR), so a 10% lower rate (HR 0.9) is worth about 15 months. Where a study reports years of life expectancy directly, we use those figures.

Can the habits really be added together?

Only roughly. Habits overlap — people who walk more often exercise more too — and the studies measured associations, not causes. Adding them gives an illustration of scale, which is why the life expectancy estimate treats the result as an average, not a promise.