How Important Is A Daily Step Count?

Jul 28

walk-step-count-fitness-important-hike-child-parent

Takeaway Points:

The 10,000 step goal is an arbitrary number created to sell more pedometers. It’s difficult for average people to hit 10,000 steps in a day, every day, even if they are active.
Studies have shown that a range of 5,000 - 7,500 steps in a day is enough to reap the metabolic and cardiac benefits of walking during the day.
The increased time many people spend sitting can still be associated with negative health outcomes even if you get your steps in.
The best bet is to not stay in any one position too long and take frequent breaks to move around and stretch. The focus should be on moving more in general, not worrying about a specific number.

You should always get 10,000 steps a day - that’s the number that I’ve always heard. But is there any merit to it?

It seems likely that the 10k steps number is mostly made up. It seems that the 10k number was largely a marketing gimmick created by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer in an attempt to increase sales. It’s also easy to see why it stuck - it’s a nice, big, round, impressive sounding number.

When I was a kid, I worked as a caddie at a golf course - and that meant that on the weekends, I would spend 4-8 hours a day walking around with a heavy load - more than enough to keep my body busy. When I went into university, I would spend an hour or more on cardio most days. Then, when I was starting my career, I worked as a gym manager and personal trainer, and spent much of my days on my feet.

Even despite that, working as a personal trainer wasn’t enough to hit 10k steps every single day. It was the first time in my life that I had really ever worn a pedometer or counted my steps, and I was surprised to see that I generally averaged 8-9k steps per day, a little below the mark.

However, in retrospect it makes sense - while I was generally very active, and on my feet the whole time when personal training, I also spent 6 hours out of each day sitting at the desk doing paperwork and other tasks as a manager, minus the tasks which required me to get up (cleaning the gym, fiddling with machines, putting away equipment, and so on).

Likewise, I recently got into daily walks as a way to get in some activity - and despite putting about an hour a day into walking in my neighborhood, I generally averaged around 7500 steps per day. However, I feel like it probably counted for a bit more than that, since my neighborhood is quite hilly, and those uphills are killer.

How Much IS 10k Steps?

This raises the question - exactly how much walking per day is 10,000 steps anyway? It turns out that it’s probably somewhere around 5 miles of walking. Add to that the fact that the average person walks at about 3mph, you’re looking at close to 2 hours of walking per day just to hit this target. You could do it if you have a very active job or a long walking commute, but it’s a lot less likely if you’re the average desk jockey with a car commute, and you would have to very significantly change the structure of your day in order to accommodate this.

There’s also the fact that most of us would struggle to find an extra two hours in our day. Many struggle just to find an hour or two four times a week to get in a consistent workout habit. Saying that, in addition to that, we’d need to find an extra fourteen hours per week just for cardio, seems a little silly.

Naturally, the process could be sped up significantly if we went running instead. An average jog takes place at around 4-6mph. Let’s assume 6mph for the sake of being nice - now, you only have to go for an intense, 50 minute jog to get your steps in!

You may be able to sense from that exclamation point, that I am being a bit sarcastic. In general, most people won’t be able to maintain a 6mph pace for 50 minutes, without being seriously exhausted and drenched in sweat. You’d probably need to take multiple breaks or lighter phases in the middle, significantly extending the time further, meaning that it would probably end up being more like 1:15 to 1:30 instead anyway. You wouldn’t really save that much time, and the added exhaustion and sweatiness wouldn’t be ideal for people looking to mix this activity seamlessly into the rest of their life.

You could hit these numbers if, for example, you got yourself a desk treadmill. In this way, you can multitask by getting your steps in while working. However, such a setup is relatively expensive, since you’d probably need a special sit/stand desk, find the right treadmill, have the space to set it all up, and so on - not ideal! I know plenty of folks who have tried to multitask working on gym treadmill, though that’s certainly far from ideal as well.

The end result is that actually hitting 10k steps is probably unattainable for most people, without significant changes to their lifestyle.

How Important Is 10k Steps?

So this raises the question - is it really important to hit that many steps, anyway?

The answer is, probably not.

A study examined the association of step counts with all cause mortality in older women, and assigned them into higher and lower step count categories. This study was also conducted on an impressive number of subjects (16,741) meaning it has pretty strong predictive power. What they found was that low step counts are associated with higher mortality rates (2700 steps), while anything above that improves your changes - up to a limit of about 7500 steps per day, at which further benefit dropped off.

In short, basically any number of steps between 2700 and 7500 is a positive relationship (the more the better) but after 7500, you’re likely getting basically all the benefits that you can.

Other studies have shown that basically anything below 5000 steps per day is likely to be an issue, causing problems with fat metabolism.

In short, a good target is probably somewhere around 5000-7500 steps per day, and anything much more than that is probably not necessary. The evidence doesn’t really bear out the 10k number.

What About Sitting?

Sitting is independently associated with negative health outcomes - meaning that, even if you’re able to exercise regularly, and get your steps in, this can still be an issue. Exercise mitigates most of the risk, but not all of it.

That said, some of us just… have desk jobs. There’s not an easy way around that. Standing desks can help, but I find standing for long periods of time to be uncomfortable. Research has also shown that people who stand all day for their jobs tend to have other complications, like blood flow issues in their legs.

In short, there’s no “ideal” position - my hunch is that the body simply doesn’t like being stuck in positions for long periods of time, and it’s best to simply regularly change position, move around, and break up their existing positions a bit. Set timers to regularly stand up from your desk and stretch a bit. Do a bit of movement periodically when watching tv. You don’t necessarily need to get a fancy sit-stand desk and do all your work on a treadmill, so long as you’re being careful elsewhere.

Other Thoughts

One of the powerful uses of a daily step count, is that it’s an easy way to keep your metabolism high without having to do a ton of high intensity exercise. High intensity exercise is fun and potentially very efficient at provoking adaptive responses, but it’s also just completely exhausting, and by definition, not something that you can keep doing a lot of.

When it comes to weight loss or weight cutting phases in your training, a consistent, high amount of low-intensity exercise is a great way to keep your metabolism up - and intensity can definitely suffer during a cut, where you’re getting in fewer calories and fewer activity-fueling carbs, and your energy levels are likely to be inconsistent and incapable of supporting tons of high-intensity activity.

In these situations, walking is a great way to get in your cardio, and the low-intensity of it makes it uniquely suited for the task. On top of that, you can then find ways to make it more compatible with multitasking on your phone or elsewhere, making it easier to fit into your daily schedule. This is exactly why I’ve gotten really into walking for cardio recently.

What Do I Recommend?

At the end of the day, for most people, anything is better than nothing, and more is better than less. There’s no need to overthink it, and no need to set arbitrary targets. Worrying about hitting 10k steps per day is likely to do more harm than good. Just focus on doing what you can and improving over time - this is what matters the most!

About Adam Fisher

Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.

During that time he has coached hundreds of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.

Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.

Follow Adam on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our mailing list, if you liked this post and want to say hello!

Enjoy this post? Share the gains!

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter