This is how many steps you should take in a day, according to a running expert

Walking 10,000 steps a day is one of the world’s most common fitness goals. But a running expert says that lofty goal may not be necessary to enjoy the many health benefits associated with regular walking.

Several recent studies have attempted to identify the daily step count that offers the best bang for your buck, and most have come up with a number between 7,000 and 8,000.

“It’s interesting how this number repeats itself in many of these studies,” says Dr. Elroy Aguiar, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of Alabama whose recent research centers around step-based measures of physical activity. “These figures are associated with a lower risk of death, cancer and heart disease.”

But that doesn’t mean walking 8,000 steps a day should be everyone’s goal—there’s more to it than that. Below we debunk the 10,000 steps a day myth, and explain how to reach a daily step goal that works for you.

Why is 10,000 steps a day such a common goal?

If study after study continues to make 8,000-or-so steps a day a worthwhile goal, where does the 10,000 steps a day goal come from?

Its origins lie in a sustained marketing campaign for a Japanese pedometer around the Tokyo Olympics in the 1960s. The machine was called manpo-keiwhich translates as “10,000 step meters”.

“There is evidence to suggest that the Japanese population, like that of the United States and perhaps the United Kingdom, averages about 5,000-6,000 steps per day,” says Dr. Aguiar.

“Pick 10,000 is a great goal because it’s a bit high. If you go for a 30-minute walk you’ll probably get about 3,000 steps, so if you do your basic daily activity and one of the planned exercises Add a session, and you’re close to that 10,000 step goal.

This number has since become the gold standard in tracking daily movement, with countless fitness trackers setting it as their main goal. It has even influenced research on the benefits of running.

“There are a lot of studies looking at whether 10,000 steps is better than less activity, and that creates artificial confirmation bias,” explains Dr. Aguiar. “People think 10,000 is very sticky. It’s a round number and easy to remember, and they’ve used it as a benchmark in their research studies.

How many steps should you take each day?

We now know that walking around 8,000 steps a day is associated with a whole host of health benefits and for many people, this is probably a very reasonable goal.

Recent research from the University of Granada supports the new goal, with a paper from the agency claiming that it “provides the first scientific evidence of how many steps you need to take each day to significantly reduce your risk of premature death.” “. This number was 8000.

Meanwhile, a 2023 meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology established a lower limit of 3,867 steps per day, claiming that this figure was necessary to see a “significant” reduction in all-cause mortality.

What both bodies of research agree on is that there is no upper limit to the number of steps you can take to improve these health outcomes. In other words, the more steps you take, the better – but there will be a point of diminishing returns.

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“If you want the best benefits for the time you put in, you already have more benefits if you’ve done 8,000 – so there are little or no incremental gains beyond that period.” Dr. Aguiar explains.

“And according to the World Health Organization (WHO) physical activity guidelines, about 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, translates to about 7,000-8,000 steps per day. It makes a lot of sense, and it fits right in with what the new research is showing.

However, despite pushing this goal from the 70s, he doesn’t take into account the fact that the 10,000 steps per day goal is too broad.

“A lot of early research acknowledges that the 10,000 steps message is, and that’s not a bad thing: taking more steps rather than doing less is always recommended,” says Dr. Aguiar. “But if you want to be accurate with what the science shows, less than that is enough.”

How to set a daily step goal

Finding a fitness routine that works for you is a very individual endeavor. In many cases, what works for one person won’t work for another, so if you’re looking to improve your exercise routine, a tailored approach is the best way to go.

The same applies to a daily step goal – someone who already walks thousands of steps a day will have a very different goal to a desk worker who struggles to move at all.

“One thing we have to be careful about is setting realistic goals,” says Dr. Aguiar. “If someone is doing 4,000 or 5,000 steps a day, and you tell them to do 10,000, that’s doubling their daily activity level, which can be difficult or even debilitating.”

Instead, he recommends a significant increase in your daily activity level, so that it progresses over time and eventually ends up north of 8,000 steps a day. Fitness trackers and smartwatches can help with this.

“Most modern wearables like Garmin and Google watches look at your current level of activity and then try to stop you by a certain percentage,” says Dr. Aguiar. “So, instead of setting an arbitrary goal like 10,000, your device will track that you’re doing 5,000 steps a day, so it might encourage you to do 10-20 percent more than that.” Increase the amount of exercise you do as exercise progresses.”

“In general, if you improve your basic steps by about 2,000 per day, which for most people would equate to 10 or 20 percent, that’s enough to improve health markers like blood pressure and body composition. There is additional activity. But obviously we want people to eventually grow to 7,000-8,000, and then eventually to 10,000-plus, because we know there are better benefits.

So, in summary: If you’re already taking 10,000 plus steps a day, you probably don’t need to increase that number. If you have the time and want to improve your fitness, more intense forms of exercise can offer bonus benefits. For example, running to increase your aerobic capacity or strength training to build muscle and strengthen your bone density.

But if you sit at a desk most of the day and struggle to find time to move, walking can be an accessible way to increase your activity level and combat that sedentary lifestyle.

Start by tracking your daily steps for seven days, then add 10-20 percent to find your goal for the next week. You can do this higher step count by parking a little further from the office, getting off the bus or train one stop earlier, or going to a cafe for lunch instead of eating at a desk.

Gradually increase this goal over time until you reach the Goldilocks point of 8,000 or more steps per day, and enjoy the many health benefits of walking in the process.

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