Medical Myths: Steps Count, But Not to 10,000
Hello, everyone. It's time for Toby's evening walk. You probably go for walks to get healthy, and you absolutely should. Regular physical activity is absolutely good for you, but you probably think that you need to get 10,000 steps a day. You absolutely do not.
The 10,000 number is not based on science. It's a marketing slogan that got out of hand. One of the first step counters was made by Japanese company Yamasa Tokei Keiki Co, and called manpo-kei, which meant 10,000 step meter. Their marketing slogan was, let's walk 10,000 steps a day.
Now, there's nothing wrong with walking 10,000 steps, but you would get the same benefit if you walked 9,000 steps if your baseline was to only walk 5,000.
I'm not here to debunk walking, but you don't need a step counter, a pedometer, a smartwatch, or any other wearable technology. You just need to move more because the 10,000 number isn't really based on science.
For Medscape, I'm Christopher Labos, with Toby.
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