Daily steps: how many you need, and where 10,000 came from

What the meta-analysis found

Paluch and colleagues pooled individual data from fifteen studies on four continents in which adults wore a step-counting device and were followed for a median of seven years. They compared mortality across quarters of daily step count.

• Compared with the least active quarter, the others had a 40 to 53% lower risk of death.
• For adults aged 60 and over, the risk levelled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day.
• For adults under 60, it levelled off at about 8,000 to 10,000.
• Walking speed showed no consistent association with mortality once the total number of steps was taken into account.

These are observational data: people who walk more may be healthier to begin with. The researchers excluded early deaths and adjusted for known factors to limit this, and the pattern held.

Where 10,000 came from

The number originates with a pedometer marketed in Japan from 1965 whose name translates as "ten-thousand-step meter". It was a memorable round figure, and it became a target worldwide without having been derived from research.

It is not a bad target for a working-age adult. It simply is not a threshold: 7,000 steps a day carry most of the benefit of 10,000, and someone moving from 3,000 to 5,000 gains more than someone moving from 10,000 to 12,000.

Steps and the exercise guidelines

The World Health Organization's recommendation is expressed in minutes of moderate and vigorous activity, not in steps. The two measure different things.

• Steps capture the total volume of walking, at any pace. They reflect how much of the day was spent moving.
• Minutes of moderate activity capture effort. Walking counts when it is brisk: you can talk but not sing. A cadence of about 100 steps a minute is a commonly used marker for that intensity.

Thirty minutes of brisk walking is about 3,000 to 3,500 steps. Someone who does that five days a week meets the lower bound of the aerobic guideline, and adds to it whatever the rest of the day contains. See how much exercise per week.

Steps do not measure strength training, cycling, swimming or rowing. A person who trains hard and sits for the rest of the day can have a low step count and a high level of fitness. Both numbers are informative.

What a step count reveals about a working day

The typical count of an office-based executive on a day without training is 3,000 to 4,000: car to lift to desk to meeting room and back. That figure is a fairly exact description of how sedentary the day was. See sitting all day.

The converter above turns steps into distance and walking time for your height. Four thousand additional steps are about three kilometres, or 35 minutes of walking.

Where the extra steps come from

Finding 35 free minutes is difficult. Finding four slots of eight minutes is not.

1. One walking meeting a day. A one-to-one conversation that does not need a screen: 25 minutes, about 2,500 steps.
2. Calls taken on foot. Corridor, terrace or car park.
3. A walk after lunch. Ten minutes, which also lowers the rise in blood sugar after the meal.
4. The last part of the journey on foot. Be dropped ten minutes from the door.
5. Stairs for anything under four floors.
6. A walk after dinner, at home or on the road.

In the Gulf, heat rules out outdoor walking for much of the day between May and October. Malls, covered walkways, hotel corridors and treadmills are the practical alternatives, and early morning the only outdoor window. See training in the heat.

Does pace matter?

For mortality, the pooled analysis found that the number of steps mattered and the cadence added little. For fitness, pace matters a great deal: slow walking does not raise the heart rate enough to improve aerobic capacity. A sensible approach is to accumulate steps through the day at whatever pace the day allows, and to make one walk a day deliberately brisk.

Counting accurately

Phones and watches count steps well enough for the purpose. A phone left on the desk counts nothing, so a watch gives truer figures. Wrist devices register some arm movements as steps and miss steps when the hand is on a trolley or in a pocket. Compare your own days with each other rather than with someone else's device.

Wear it for a week without changing your habits. The average of the working days is your baseline. Add 1,000 to 2,000 steps to it and hold that for a month before adding more.

For people who already train

Walking does not replace structured training, and structured training does not replace walking. The combination that protects best is the one described throughout this Journal: two strength sessions, two or three aerobic sessions, and a day that is not spent entirely in a chair. See strength training for executives.

On rest days and in heavy weeks, walking is the session. See exercise and stress.

People with joint, foot or balance problems should increase gradually and take advice on footwear and surfaces.