Most adults are spending more time on the toilet than exercising

How much time should you really be spending on the toilet? Photo / Getty Images

People are spending more time sitting on the toilet every week than exercising, a poll has revealed.

Adults clock up an average of three hours and nine minutes on the lavatory every week - but spend just 90 minutes being active.

According to the Daily Mail, more than a quarter (26 per cent) of people exercise for 30 minutes or less each week and almost two-thirds (64 per cent) sit down for at least six hours a day.

Only 12 per cent of people know how much exercise is needed for good health, the survey of 2000 adults for the not-for-profit body UK active also found.

Adults should do 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise, such as cycling, swimming or brisk walking, the NHS recommends.

The findings raise fresh concern over our "dangerously sedentary" lifestyles, which put people at risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer and early death.

It also discovered the greatest barriers to exercise were busy working lives (cited by one in five people), followed by family commitments (cited by 18 per cent of women and 12 per cent of men).

Social media can motivate younger people to be more active, although it has less influence on older age groups.

More than 40 per cent of 18-24-year-olds said friends and celebrities posting pictures on Instagram of them exercising had a positive effect on them, but the figure for all age groups dropped to 28 per cent.