Is the 10,000-Steps Goal a Myth?

One of the things many people do for fitness is try to get 10,000 steps per day. Researchers recently wanted to know whether that many steps really gives a person any health advantage, because the concept of 10,000 steps per day wasn’t based on any real science—it came from a Japanese company who invented a wearable step counter in 1965 and just made up a number that sounds good.

Researchers analyzed data from 16,741 older women who agreed to wear a step counter at least 10 hours per day for at least four days a week during waking hours. They divided the subjects into quartiles based on the number of steps per day. After four years of follow-up, they discovered that hazard ratios declined as the number of steps per day increased. No real surprise there. What was surprising was that there were no additional benefits after 7,500 steps per day; in fact, the mortality began to decline with as little as 4,400 steps per day.

Is the goal of 10,000 steps per day a myth? Not in my opinion; most of us are too sedentary most of the time. The mean age of the subjects in this study was 72. It may be that younger women need more steps to impact mortality because they have potentially more years to live; then maybe after reaching 72, they can scale back. Hard to say. But they looked at mortality only; 10,000 steps per day may have benefits they didn’t examine.

I would have thought walking intensity might have had an impact, but it didn’t in this study. However, another recently published study may provide more insight, especially as it relates to obesity. We’ll take a look on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: JAMA Intern Med. 2019. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.0899.