For once, it might be time to step things down.
If it feels impossible to make it to 10,000 steps a day — a guideline that comes not from science but a wildly successful 1960s marketing campaign in Japan, by the way — you’re in luck.
New research — published Wednesday in the Lancet Public Health — has provided perhaps the most comprehensive evidence yet that the real number to target can be much lower than 10,000.
Analyzing data from 57 studies that involved over 160,000 adults, researchers linked walking only 7,000 steps per day to a reduced risk of several health issues, including death from any cause (47% reduction), cardiovascular disease (25%), cancer (6%), Type 2 diabetes (14%), dementia (38%), depression (22%) and falls (28%).
Research shows that little exercise is still better than no exercise, so it’s no surprise that the study notes that an even smaller count of 2,000 steps per day can yield better health outcomes than next to nothing.
“Steps are part of just exercising, and exercising is part of an aerobic activity,” Dr. Theodore Strange, chairman of medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, who was not involved with the study, told The Post.
“Aerobic means getting oxygen circulated to all of the organs in the body, the muscles in the body, the brain. And so the more steps you do, the more circulation there is, and that has a physiologic effect on improving healthcare outcomes.”
While he believes that more is more, it’s important to be realistic.
“I’m a marathon runner, so I’m always a fan of the more there is, the better you are, especially with exercise,” Strange said.
“But I do think that you have to take into consideration people’s lifestyles. What is something that is achievable?”
For instance, 7,000 steps is approximately 3.5 miles — walking at a somewhat brisk pace of 15 minutes per mile, this feat could be completed in approximately an hour.
“So if you said to somebody who’s active and has to go to work or take care of children or have many other obligations, an hour a day of exercise, which would be approximately that 7,000 steps, is very achievable and something that could be measurable and something that can be incorporated into people’s lifestyles,” Strange said.
Here are some of his other tips:
Park further away in a parking lot.
Take the steps at work as opposed to the elevator (as long as your knees and hips can tolerate it).
Walk to the store instead of driving if it’s close enough.
Another option is to schedule your daily walk the same way you would lunch or dinner.
“We should set up a point of the day where we are actively out there exercising, where we put time in,” he said.
“Exercise has to become a lifestyle. It has to be part of your day.”
