A better goal than 10,000 steps

How many steps should people take every day for good health?

A new study of activity and mortality in older women finds that the total could be lower than many of us expect and that even small increases in steps can be meaningful. The study also side-eyes the validity, utility and origin of the common 10,000-step-a-day exercise goals built into so many of our phones and activity monitors and suggests, instead, that any moving, whether or not it counts as exercise, may help to extend people’s lives.

By now, almost all of us know that walking and other types of physical activity are indispensable to our well-being. Studies show that active people have lower incidences of heart disease, obesity and Type 2 diabetes and usually live longer than people who are sedentary. But many of us remain confused about just how much exercise we need and how intense it should be.

So, for the new study, which was published last week in JAMA Internal Medicine, I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, and her colleagues set out to objectively quantify how many steps might be needed to avoid premature mortality.

The researchers gathered the step-count and health data from almost 17,000 women, most of them in their 70s, and none of whom reported poor health. The scientists also checked death records for the subsequent four to five years and then compared step counts and mortality. The women who had moved the least, taking only about 2,700 steps a day, were the most likely to have died during the followup period. Women who moved more often had considerably less risk of premature death, up to a plateau of about 7,500 steps a day. The sweet spot for reducing the risk of premature death was about 4,500 steps per day, the data showed. “We were quite surprised that such a relatively small number of steps would be associated with such a substantial reduction in mortality,” Lee said.