The exact number of daily steps to slash your risk of dying young by almost 50% – and it's loads less than you think

The Sun

5 days ago

FOR decades, 10,000 steps a day has been drilled into us as the ultimate daily goal to keep fit and healthy.
But new research shows you could move far less and still boost your health, slash the risk of disease, and even live longer.
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A study led by scientists from the University of Sydney in Australia found that walking just 7,000 steps each day can reduce your risk of dementia, heart disease and dying early.
Even modest step counts of 4,000 steps a day can reap benefits over very low levels of activity, experts found.
But they added that "10,000 steps per day will still be better than 7,000 steps" - with the higher step count leading to more health benefits.
This isn't the first study to suggest you don't need to hit 10,000 steps a day to claim the rewards.
Separate research, published by London scientists last year, found that walking just 5,000 steps three days a week can increase life expectancy by three years.
Meanwhile, a Polish study from 2023 found getting your step count up to 2,337 each day was enough to slash your risk of heart disease.
The new study, published in The Lancet Public Health, saw researchers examine data from dozens of studies from around the world, including in the UK, on tens of thousands of adults.
They found that walking just 7,000 steps a day was linked to a 25 per cent lower risk of heart disease.
It was also associated with a 14 per cent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, a 38 per cent lower risk of dementia, and a 22 per cent reduced risk of depression.
The researchers also found that when people walked 7,000 daily steps, compared to walking 2,000 steps, they were 47 per cent less likely to die during the follow-up periods of the studies analysed.
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And while the number of steps walked did not sway whether or not a person got cancer, people who walked more steps were 37 per cent less likely to die from cancer.
"Although 10,000 steps per day can still be a viable target for those who are more active, 7,000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a more realistic and achievable target for some," the authors wrote in the study.
"Even modest daily step counts were associated with health benefits," they added.
"7,000 steps per day was associated with sizeable risk reductions across most outcomes, compared with the reference of 2,000 steps per day."
'More is always better'
Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Bailey, Reader - Sedentary Behaviour and Health, Brunel University of London, said: "The finding that doing 5000-7000 steps per day is an important addition to the literature which helps to debunk the myth that 10,000 steps per day should be the target for optimal health.
"This study suggested that 5,000-7,000 steps per day can significantly reduce the risk of many health outcomes, but that does not mean you cannot get benefits if you don't meet this target.
"The study also found that health risks were reduced with each 1000 extra steps per day, up to a maximum of 12,000 steps per day. So just adding more steps from your starting point can have important benefits for health."
Dr Andrew Scott, senior Lecturer in clinical exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth, added: "In most cases the 10,000 steps per day will still be better than 7,000 steps, just by decreasing margins of health benefit return.
"More important than the exact number of steps, it demonstrates that overall, more is always better and people should not focus too much on the numbers, particularly on days where activity is limited.
"The steps per day is useful when people's exercise is weight-bearing, however, cycling, swimming and rowing are not well-represented by the steps per day model."
The truth about 10,000 steps a day
By Alice Fuller
THE 10,000-steps-a-day concept is floated around as the be-all and end-all of optimal physical health.
But in reality, the 'magic' number might actually be ­significantly less.
Dr John Schuna, of Oregon State University, who has studied the topic in detail, said: 'Despite a widespread desire within the public health community to formalise 'steps per day' guidelines, there has been an insufficient body of ­evidence from which we could derive such recommendations.'
In fact, researchers at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland and Johns ­Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US found that fewer than 4,000 steps a day was enough to ward off premature death, and fewer than 3,000 would keep your heart and blood vessels in decent shape.
What's more, research by ­Harvard Medical School found 4,400 may be more than enough to live a long, healthy life.
It turns out the '10,000' idea stems from a 1960s Tokyo Olympics campaign to flog a new pedometer; hugely popular at the time, it appears to have stuck.
But according to Dr Schuna, it is actually better to ditch the idea of daily strides altogether and instead focus on movement more generally.
He says: 'It's not to say that 10,000 steps a day is not a good goal, as most people who achieve this will meet the ­current recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, but fitness trackers that ­monitor step counts don't tell us how intense that exercise was.
'For instance, two people might both average an accumulated 5,000 steps a day — one spread evenly over a 16-hour period, the other condensed into a brisk 2.5-hour walk.
'Despite the totals being equivalent, the second individual will yield far greater health ­benefits because they are engaging in some moderate or higher-intensity activity.'
The benefits of opting for the latter approach? Not only will you lower your chances of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, you'll also have a reduced risk of cardiovascular problems and premature death, Dr Schuna adds.
London GP Dr Zoe ­Watson says: 'The 10,000 figure is rather arbitrary in all ­honesty, and not based on any scientific evidence.
'It has been latched on to because it's memorable and easy to use as a benchmark — much like our five-a-day fruit and veg consumption and eight hours of sleep at night.
'While it might give us a sense of control and help us to stick to a routine, it can pile on the pressure and make us feel inadequate if we don't meet it.
'That is just totally counterproductive. Some common sense is needed — any body movement is a good thing.
'Every human has different genetics, social circumstances, and lived lives, so predicting how many steps will reduce their risk of heart disease or stroke is virtually impossible.
'Forget the number. Just do what brings you joy and raises your heart rate a bit.'