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Image: Dushawn Jovic/Unsplash
The gospel according to fitness influencers: drink three liters of water per day, get a minimum of eight hours of sleep, and walk at least 10,000 steps per day.
From the hot girl walk, to wearing weighted vests and arm weights on said walk, to those taking it one—or 5,000—steps further and marching up to 15,000 or even 25,000 steps a day, these once-simple strolls have morphed into full-blown social media trends. When did something as basic as going for a walk become so intimidating?
While mostly sage advice, if you’ve been struggling to hit the gold standard of 10,000 steps a day (which roughly equates to five miles) or found yourself doing laps around the block to get those final few hundred under your belt, just know that unofficial target isn’t actually based in science.
The 10,000 steps-a-day walking target originated as a 1960s marketing slogan by Japanese company Yamasa to sell pedometers. It has since become accepted wisdom, promoted heavily by the online fitness community.
That is, until new scientific analysis in The Lancet Public Health officially confirmed that this aspirational goal, while by no means harmful, isn’t the magic number it’s promoted to be, and even thousands fewer steps a day could still yield big health rewards.
The researchers analysed data from more than 160,000 adults to examine how step counts were linked with the risk of developing a number of health conditions. They discovered the overall mortality for people walking 7,000 steps was 47% lower than for those who walked only 2,000. Walking this amount daily also reduced the risk of health problems including death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as incidence of type 2 diabetes and dementia.
But after 7,000 steps, as the step count increased, the payoff rate slowed. The overall mortality for people notching 10,000 steps was 48%—just a 1% increase from 7,000—compared with 2,000.
Now, that’s not to say you should give up on your 10,000-step goal, or worse, cut back on the steps you are already doing. Hitting 10,000 steps was found to be better than 7,000 for some health conditions, such as reducing the risk of depression. Also, those clocking in 12,000 steps a day saw their overall mortality drop 55% compared with 2,000.
But pushing for a minimum of 5,000 to 7,000—a more practical target for those who are currently inactive—will make the biggest difference for the least amount of effort.
While 10,000 may still be the gold standard, just know that you are still reaping the health benefits if you only make it to 9,999.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eve Upton-Clark is a writer at Fast Company who focuses on internet culture and trends, covering everything from politics to pop culture.. She has been a freelance features writer since 2020 and is a regular contributor to Business Insider, Telegraph, Dazed, and more.