How much should you walk per day? Science debunks the 10,000-steps-a-day myth

If there is one figure that has been bandied about in the field of the health benefits of physical exercise, it is that of walking 10,000 steps per day, the equivalent of about seven kilometres. It has even been said to be a recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), but the WHO does not mention this number in its advice for healthy living.

For the 18-64 age group, it calls for 150-300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week - between two and a half and five hours - or half this time if the intensity is higher. A combination of both would also work.

To any of these options, muscle-strengthening training should be added at least twice a week. No more talk of the infamous 10,000 steps.

Numerous studies have discarded this measure and have lowered it to 8,000 steps or even less. One of the latest articles to debunk this 10k myth was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, in which it claims that walking 2,200 steps is enough to reduce the risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and that - this is the new finding - if we walk between 9,000 and 10,000 steps, we compensate for the risks of a very sedentary life, understood as spending more than 10.5 hours sitting or lying down without counting the hours of sleep.

“Any number of daily steps above 2,200 was associated with lower mortality and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence. Accumulating between 9,000 and 10,000 steps/day optimally reduced the risk of mortality and CVD even among very sedentary individuals.”

In particular, the risk of mortality was reduced by 39% and the risk of coronary heart disease by 21%.

Researchers at the University of Sydney/Charles Perkins Centre came to these conclusions after analysing the activity of 72,174 people enrolled in the UK Biobank, a databank containing information on half a million British citizens. All of them had worn an accelerometer - pretty much all watch or sports wristbands have this sensor - on their wrist for a week to measure the amount of exercise they were doing.

“Our results can be used to enhance public health messages and to make specific recommendations on how much walking to do on a daily basis,” they concluded.

If the WHO has not recommended walking 10,000 steps per day for good health, what is the origin of this figure as a leading benchmark of well-being?

It seems to be the result of a marketing strategy by the sellers of watches and sports bracelets that track physical activity. In this case, the origin goes back as far as 1965, to Japan. At that time, a Japanese company launched a pedometer called ‘Manpo-Kei’, which literally translates as ‘10,000 steps measure’. They chose that figure because, in Japanese writing, it looks like a man walking - no other reason.

Myth debunked, but those in charge of our health still insist on the importance of physical activity, however short that may be. Little is better than none.

Figures taken from the WHO’s data speak for themselves: more than a quarter of the world’s adult population - 1.4 billion people - do not achieve the minimum level of exercise and those statistics have not improved since 2001, that is a long two decades. So are the consequences: last March a study in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet put the number of obese people worldwide at more than one billion, and that number is projected to double by 2030. The disease already causes 5 million deaths and 40 million sufferers worldwide.

It is never too early or too late to start. For babies under one year of age, the WHO recommends interactive floor play several times a day and they should not be held in prams or chairs or strapped to their parents’ or carers’ chests or backs for more than an hour at a time.

At the other end of the age scale, for the over-65s, the same advice applies as for adults, with the addition of balance and strength exercises to reduce the increased risk of falls in old age. Provided there are no contraindications, pregnant and postpartum women can and should remain active. At least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week is recommended.

Even people with chronic diseases and those who have overcome cancer should keep moving. For the latter, physical activity has started to be recommended even during cancer treatment.