The concept of 10,000 steps a day was born out of marketing strategy. As the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics approached, Japanese researchers decided to encourage their country to become more active by offering a pedometer loosely translated as “10,000 steps.” . (The number 10,000 in Japanese looks like a person walking.)
Recently, scientists have devised evidence-based recommendations for step goals. I recently spoke with some of the world’s leading experts on the science of pedometers. Here is their advice.
1. Your step goal may be lower than you think
Over the past few years, several large-scale studies have been conducted to investigate the number of steps required for our health and longevity. At the largest published last year In The Lancet Public Health, dozens of global researchers pooled data from 15 early and unpublished step count surveys of 47,471 adults of all ages to determine their A typical daily step count and life span were compared.
The sweet spot for steps was never above 10,000. In general, the pooled data showed the greatest relative reduction in risk of premature death for men and women under the age of 60 with about 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day.
For people over 60, the threshold is a little lower. For them, the optimal number of steps he took in terms of reducing the risk of death was 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.
Walking more than 10,000 steps a day was not bad for people and did not increase the risk of death, but it did not do much to reduce the risk of death.
Longevity wasn’t the only benefit.In other studies, steps were At least 8,000 per day practically for adults reduce risk Janet Fulton, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Physical Activity and Health, says heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, depression, many types of cancer, and even sleep apnea. also said to be effective.
2. Even a small increase in daily steps is good for your health
Are you currently managing 8,000 steps a day? Or 6,000? Or is it 5,000? You are not alone. Even before the pandemic, most Americans averaged less than 6,000 steps a day. And according to some people, COVID-19 has reduced the number of steps taken in a day by more than 10% for many people. Recent researchdaily activity levels will only slowly return to pre-pandemic levels.
How can I increase the number of steps I take? Even a small increase in the number of steps you take each day is good for your body.
“We recommend starting with about 500 to 1,000 steps per day,” says Ulf Ekelund, a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Sport Sciences who studies physical activity.
“We are currently considering A minimum goal of 500 steps a day To increase activity in inactive people,” said Thomas Yates, a professor of physical activity, sedentary behavior and health at the University of Leicester, UK.
Try adding at least 8,000 steps a day, and 500 or 1,000 more every week or two until you reach 6,000 steps after age 60, says Ekelund.
3. No need for expensive pedometers
“Cellphones and watches are pretty accurate,” says Aiming Li, an epidemiologist and physical activity researcher at Harvard’s TH Chang School of Public Health.
But not everyone owns a watch or similar activity tracker, Fulton said. “Almost everyone has a smartphone now.” And almost every smartphone, whether Apple or Android, has a motion-tracking device, an accelerometer, that can tell you how many steps you’ve taken, Fulton said.
These devices aren’t as accurate as the research-grade accelerometers used in scientific research, and the readings are different enough that the number of steps you take after the same walk could be different than mine. Ekelund said.
But these issues are relatively minor, Yates said. Most cell phones and other types of trackers are “pretty reliable,” he said, and even if they overestimate or underestimate your steps a little, they’ll “consistently” rate them so you can track your progress.
Charles Matthews, a physical activity epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute and another co-author of the Lancet study, said the more intractable problem is that many of us don’t carry our cell phones with us all the time. said it might. Steps are not counted when the phone is on the desk. So take your phone with you when you go for a walk to accurately measure your total steps for the day. Carry it in your pocket, handbag, or hand. The accelerometer should ignore the user’s movements, he said.
The basic step count calculation is: 1,000 steps equals approximately 0.5 miles. Why not take it a step further? For most of us, 2,000 steps equals about a mile, depending on how long you stride. 10,000 steps is about 8 miles.
5. Speed doesn’t matter
In terms of time, a 30-minute walk equates to about 3,000 steps for most people, if you’re not in a hurry.
The good news is that you probably don’t need to rush. In almost all recent studies on step count and mortality, it seems that step intensity, or how fast people walk, doesn’t matter much. What made the difference was the total number of steps taken throughout the day.
Matthews said intensity is the “garnish” of the cake. Walking faster could amplify the health benefits of walking, but only marginally, he said.
The key is to walk as often as possible, regardless of your pace.
6. Your step goal isn’t to lose weight
Walking is not a calorie zapper. As a rule of thumb, accumulating 2,000 steps equals walking about 1 mile, which burns about 100 calories for the average adult moving at the pace of a walk.
A typical donut contains about 300 calories. There are about 100 apples in an apple, and 10,000 steps a day only provides about 500 calories.
7. It’s easier to count your steps than a few minutes of exercise
Why count steps in the first place? Because for most of us, that’s a simpler, more specific goal than stacking up “at least 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio” each week. This happens to be his 2018 official recommendation of the US government. physical activity guidelines.
“I stopped explaining or prescribing physical activity guidelines to patients,” said William Krause, a Duke University School of Medicine professor who helped develop the 2018 guidelines.
“They don’t understand it and they can’t absorb it. We went through the prescription process. I tell them they need to reach a minimum of 7,000 steps a day.”
A step goal was not included in the 2018 guidelines because the Scientific Advisory Board thought the evidence was thin at the time, but most experts expect step count to be included in future recommendations. there is
On the other hand, the advice for most of us is the same, we measure our movements (and assuming we have the ability to walk). “Some are good, but the more the better,” says Lee, and the first step is just to stand up and take a few steps.
Have a fitness question? Email [email protected] I may answer your question in a future column.
