To step or not to step: How many is enough?

Walking through town

For many years 10,000 steps each day has been the barometer we have been told we should try and meet to improve our health. The interesting part of this is it started as a good idea because 10,000 steps had a nice ring to it and sounded like something that is good to achieve but didn’t have a lot of research or evidence to back it up.

As we all know, to gain health benefits from physical activity we need to be doing at least, and preferably more, than 150 minutes each week of moderate intensity aerobic activity such as walking, swimming, and cycling. If we are going harder and working out more intensely, then fewer minutes are required – around 75 minutes per week. Then comes strength training twice a week and also balance training at least twice a week, because almost everyone wants to stay living in their own home right to the end of life and to do this you not only require mobility but also need strength to do things like get on and off the toilet and balance for dressing and preventing falls.

Balance activities

A new paper was released just this week [1] that has combined many studies from across a number of years to determine how many daily steps we should try and achieve each day to improve our health. They found that even taking a small number of steps was associated with health benefits and that 7,000 steps per day was associated with major risk reduction for a number of health conditions. Now which health conditions are they talking about?

Improve your health

They found that all-cause mortality (this includes anyone who dies regardless of how it happened, i.e. illness, accident, old age or anything else) was reduced 47% for those walking 7,000 steps compared to those only achieving 2,000 steps per day. The risks were also lower for the following conditions:

• 25% lower risk for those with cardiovascular incidence,

• 47% lower for cardiovascular disease mortality,

• 37% lower for cancer mortality,

• 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes,

• 22% lower risk of depression and

• 28% lower risk of falls.

7,000 steps a day improves health

Simply increasing your step count from 2,000 steps per day to 7,000 steps per day reduces your risk of dying or being diagnosed with a number of conditions. Interestingly if you are doing a lot more than 10,000 steps per day you won’t necessarily decrease your risk by a lot more, there is a plateau effect. However, you will have better endurance and this means you will be able to do things you like for longer and your risk of injury due to tiredness or fatigue will decrease also.

How do you know how many steps you are doing each day? There are many ways you can see how many steps you are doing. You might have an accelerometer on your watch, such as a Fitbit, Apple watch or Garman Vivosmart, the list goes on. If you don’t like wearing one of these devices, smart phones often have step counters in them also, Apple iPhones, Samsung Galaxy series, Google pixel phones all have the ability to measure how many steps you are taking each day.

Accelerometers and Pedometers

To walk 7,000 steps in one go might take someone between 1-2 hours depending on how quickly they walk and this could equate to around 5-6km, but remember there is no hard and fast rule that you need to do this in one go. Across a day when we are usually awake for around say 16 hours, that is only 438 steps an hour. Unless you have a health condition stopping you from moving, I cannot see what excuses people can come up with that they can’t take 500 steps each hour!

Yes, I can’t be bothered is a great excuse, I don’t have time (really poorly thought out argument – better known as not a priority), I am too old (never cuts it with me). If you are telling me you’re too old then please don’t tell me you want to live independently, because mobility and living independently go hand in hand, they need each other like we need air, food and water.

You might find it really easy to do everything around your home now with little physical activity but take a second to check in with yourself and see if anything is more difficult now than it was five years ago? If it is, are you still doing as much as you were five years ago? If not, then you might like to start including some extra things into your day, more activity, more strength, some extra balance exercises. If you start now you will be positively compounding your physical function into your future and continuing to work towards living well.

• If you are taking 7,000-10,000 steps per day, keep it up, your body and mind thank you

• If you think you’re not being as active but you’re really not sure how many steps you are taking there are shops that sell very cheap pedometers, often for $15-$20. Are they the most accurate, probably not, will they give you an indication of where you are at, definitely, and then you can begin to build up to the 7,000 steps per day to lower your risk of disease or early death

• If you don’t want to buy a pedometer or use an accelerometer on your phone, then try and build up to around 5-6kms of walking a day

• Try walking with a friend or loved one, it’s often more fun doing something with someone else

• Have you ever listened to a podcast? This could be a good time to try it and see if you like listening to them and walking (or jogging – steps are steps)

• Try going to a new park, walking along the river or around lakes depending on where you live. Nature has some beautiful scenery which makes achieving the steps really enjoyable

• If you have a dog go with them, or help a friend and take their dog for a walk

• Even gardening over reasonable periods of time or cleaning the house can help get the step count up

• There are so many different ways you can get your steps up every day, what will you choose?

Live the good life!

Reference:

[1] Ding, D., Nguyen, B., Nau, T., Luo, M., del Pozo Cruz, B., Dempsey, P. C., Munn, Z., Jefferis, B. J., Sherrington, C., Calleja, E. A., Chong, K. H., Davis, R., Francois, M. E., Tiedemann, A., Biddle, S. J. H., Okely, A., Bauman, A., Ekelund, U., Clare, P., & Owen, K. (2025). Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00164-1