Exercise doesn’t only help you lose weight; a new study featured on the Huffington Post says that it may also lower your risk of developing kidney stones.

Dr. Mathew Sorensen of University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and his colleagues worked with 85,000 women ages 50 years old and above who took part in the Women’s Health Initiative study.

The researchers surveyed the participants’ weight, body mass index (BMI), and eating habits to gauge obesity.

The amount of exercise the women did on a regular basis were then translated into “METs” or the effort it takes to complete an exercise (e.g. 10 METs is equal to 2 1/2 hours of moderate walking).

After eight years, the researchers found out that three percent of the subjects developed kidney stones, and most of those who did were those who had little exercise. However, those who had five METs a week were 16 percent less likely to develop kidney stones. In fact, every increase in MET levels resulted to a more reduced risk.

But the best news of all is that exercise intensity doesn’t even matter, so you don’t have to be a gym junkie to reap these benefits.

(Photo by Sunny Katigbak via Flickr Creative Commons)