There’s a new number that ought to be everyone’s target — 7,000

Why 7,000 Steps Is Enough

It’s the start of the new year, and you want to get off on the right foot. You bought a tracker, grabbed a friend, and you’re going to walk 10,000 steps a day toward better health. Because everyone knows that 10,000 steps is the key to better health.

Did you ever stop to think where the number came from, and if it’s an accurate recommendation?

The perception that 10,000 is the magic number actually grew out of a 1960s Japanese marketing campaign selling pedometers. And 10,000 sounded catchy, so it stuck. But it has no scientific basis.

Over the last decade, there’s been loads of research into health and fitness. Obviously, the more we move, the better it is for our health. There’s also been research into step-taking, and the conclusion is that there’s a new number that ought to be everyone’s target — 7,000.

“Seven thousand steps tends to be the range where there seems to be diminishing returns on investment for increasing more steps,” says Melanie Ding, professor of public health at the University of Sydney. Along with a group of scientists, Professor Ding tracked more than 160,000 people around the world, examining the link between step count and health. Those who took 7,000 steps a day had a 50% lower risk of dying than those who took only 2,000 steps a day.

Taking 7,000 steps a day also lowered the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and dementia.

While exceeding 7,000 steps a day offers few added health benefits, it does no harm. But there were many people who found 10,000 steps to be unattainable, and 7,000 feels like an easier number to reach.

If that still feels out of reach, there are benefits to increasing your step count, even if it doesn’t reach 7,000. Researchers found increasing step count from 2,000 steps a day to 4,000 lowered the mortality risk by 36%.

Amanda Paluch, a physical activity epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, led a different group of researchers who also studied the effects of step count on health. They discovered that age may set the number of required steps for good health.

“We were seeing older adults did not seem to need as many steps compared to younger adults,” she reported.

Her research indicated that younger adults need 8,000–10,000 steps per day while adults in their sixties and older did just as well with 6,000–8,000 steps per day.

Researchers also wondered if speed may make a difference. Some researchers said it was difficult for them to come to any definitive conclusions. It was unclear if walking faster led to better health or if better health allowed people to walk faster.

Paluch found that speed made no difference.

“We don’t actually see an association once we consider the number of steps,” she said. “So essentially, the total number of steps, regardless of how fast you’re walking, seems to have a benefit.”

But there is some risk in declaring that 7,000 steps a day leads to better heath, because it offers the illusion that this alone is enough of a physical fitness regimen. “Everybody wants to know how little I need to do. That is the wrong question,” says Dr. William Kraus, a professor at Duke University who was involved in setting the federal guidelines for physical activity. “Anything is better than nothing — more is better than less.”

That recommendation of 7,000 steps actually changes if someone works at a sedentary job. New evidence suggests that if you spend eight hours in a chair, you need to aim closer to 13,000 steps per day .

While walking 7,000 steps can provide multiple health benefits, it needs to be part of a larger fitness plan. Steps alone can’t be the only approach to physical health. A good plan also includes strength training, as well as mobility exercises.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 965)