2023-06-19 09:53:29
If you struggle to get ten thousand steps a day, here’s good news: according to recent research, we may not need to walk that much to be healthy.
To begin with, the determination of ten thousand steps as a daily goal originated from a marketing ploy: in preparation for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, a Japanese researcher decided to encourage his countrymen to be more active by marketing a pedometer loosely translated as “the ten thousand step meter” (the Japanese character for the number ten thousand somewhat similar to the figure of a walking man). In fact, there is nothing magical or evidence-based about the number. So how many are supposed to go? Here are some tips from experts.
1. Less but still walking
In recent years, a large number of large-scale studies have looked closely at how many steps should be taken per day to gain health and longevity. In the largest study, published last year in the Lancet journal, dozens of researchers around the world collected data from 15 previous studies on step counting, some of which were not published. They looked at 47,471 adults of all ages, and compared their typical daily step count to their life expectancy.
Their conclusion was that it is not necessary to take ten thousand steps or more to be healthy. Overall, the pooled data showed that for men and women under sixty, the greatest relative reduction in risk of premature death came with step counts ranging from about 8,000 to 10,000 per day. For people over the age of sixty, the threshold was lower: between 6,000 and 8,000 per day. Walking more than ten thousand steps a day did not increase the risk of death, but neither did it decrease the risk.
The benefits are not limited to longevity. In other studies, getting at least 8,000 steps a day for adults significantly lowered the risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, depression, many types of cancer and even sleep apnea, said Janet Fulton, senior scientific advisor in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Exercise and Obesity. Diseases and their prevention.
2. A march for ascension
Not reaching 8,000 steps a day right now? Not even to 6,000, or even 5,000? You’re not alone. Even before the pandemic, most Americans walked less than 6,000 steps a day, and the corona virus seems to have only reduced those numbers – and in many cases by 10 percent or more. Recent studies indicate that the level of daily activity is slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels.
So how do we start increasing our step count? Even very small increases are good for the body. “I suggest starting with an increase of about 500-1,000 steps a day,” said Olaf Eklund, a lecturer at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, who studies physical activity, and was one of the authors of the Lancet step count study. He suggested trying to increase the number of daily steps every week or two, until you reach at least 8,000 a day, or 6,000 if you’re over sixty.
3. Without a special gauge
According to Fulton, almost every smartphone – Apple or Android – contains a pedometer that will tell you how far you’ve walked each day. These devices are not as accurate as research-grade pedometers used in scientific studies, Eklund said, and their readings may differ from another person’s step count, even if they walk together. But according to Yates, these are minor problems. Most phones and other types of trackers are “fairly reliable,” the researcher said, and even if they underestimate your step count somewhat, they’ll do so “consistently,” so you can track your progress.
A more difficult problem lies in the fact that many of us don’t carry our phones all the time, said Charles Matthews, an exercise epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute and another author of the Lancet study. If the phone is sitting on the table, it won’t count your steps. So to get an accurate measurement of your total daily steps, take your phone with you while walking. Carry it in your pocket or hand. The pedometer should pick up your movements.
4. Not fast, not nervous
In terms of time, half an hour of walking is equal to about 3,000 steps for most of us, if we are not in a hurry. The good news is that there’s probably no need to rush: In almost all recent studies of step counting and mortality, it seems that step intensity—that is, how fast people walked—wasn’t particularly important.
Vigor is the “icing on the cake,” Matthews said, explaining that it’s possible that walking faster may increase the health benefits of walking, but only slightly. The important thing is to walk as often as you can, no matter what the pace.
5. Not on the step alone
Walking does not burn a lot of calories. In general estimation, 2,000 steps, a walk of about one and a half kilometers, burns about 100 calories for an average adult moving at a walking pace. For comparison, this is the number of calories in an apple. Even ten thousand steps a day add up to only about 500 calories burned.
6. But who is counting?
Why even count steps? Because for most of us, that’s a simpler goal than getting “at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity” each week—which is also the official advice in the US government’s 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines.
“I stopped trying to explain and prescribe the exercise guidelines to my patients,” said William Krause, a professor of medicine at Duke University who was involved in writing the guidelines. “They don’t understand them, nor can they absorb them. That’s why I switched to steps. I tell them they need to reach at least 7,000 steps a day.” Action targets were not included in the 2018 guidelines because a scientific advisory committee believed the scientific evidence was weak at the time. However, most experts expect future recommendations to include step counts as well.
Meanwhile, the advice is the same for most of humanity: no matter how you measure your movements, remember that a few steps is good, and a lot of steps is better. The first step is to simply get up and take a few steps.
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