https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-many-steps-should-you-take-a-day
For general fitness, most adults should aim for 10,000 steps per day, with fewer than 5,000 steps being a sign of a sedentary lifestyle. However, the number of steps a person walks on average will depend on a person’s age, current fitness level, and health goals.
This recommendation comes from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source.
Walking is an effective form of low impact exercise that can help people improve or maintain their physical fitness.
In this article, we look in more detail at how many steps people should take each day for:
- general health
- weight loss
- physical strength
We also look at the requirements for different age groups and sexes and explain how to take more steps each day.
Walking is a form of low impact, moderate intensity exercise that has a range of health benefits and few risks. As a result, the CDC recommend that most adults aim for
10,000 steps per dayTrusted Source. For most people, this is the equivalent of about
8 kilometers, or 5 miles.
Most people in the United States only take
3,000–4,000 steps per dayTrusted Source, which equates to about 1.5–2 miles. As doctors generally consider fewer than
5,000 steps per day to be sedentary, this means that many people in the U.S. are not getting as many steps as they should to benefit their health.
According to the
Arthritis Foundation, walking can improve:
- muscle strength
- range of motion
- blood flow
- flexibility
- balance, which can help prevent falls
- joint stiffness
- mood and sleep
- breathing
Walking can also help improve or prevent certain health conditions, such as
obesity,
osteoporosis, and age-related memory loss.
The benefits of walking appear to increase with step count. A 2020 study found that participants who took 8,000 steps per day had a
51% lower riskTrusted Source of dying by any cause compared with those who took 4,000 per day.
This trend continued with higher step counts, as participants who took 12,000 steps per day had a 65% lower risk of dying than those who took 4,000.
This finding suggests that the benefits of walking increase with step count but also shows that people who cannot reach 10,000 steps in a day can still benefit from the activity.
How many steps to take for weight loss
The number of steps to take for weight loss can vary depending on an individual’s current weight, food intake, and target weight. However, 10,000 steps is a good goal for most people.
Some evidence suggests that for weight loss, exercise intensity is also important.
A
2018 analysis Trusted Source of 363 people with obesity found that those who took 10,000 steps per day and spent at least 3,500 of those steps engaged in moderate-to-vigorous activity lasting for bouts of 10 minutes or longer experienced enhanced weight loss.
Keeping up this level of activity helped participants maintain their weight loss until the 18-month follow-up.
The study included a mix of white, Black, Latinx, and Asian participants, most of whom were female. However, the researchers state that further clinical trials are necessary to validate these results.
, too old , bad foot , too fat to even think about doing this anymore
!
After half a day I had logged more than 10,000 steps! I stepped on it, crushed it to bits! I got this one!
. I’m sure everyone is different, but when Hubby was dealing with PF, the foot braces to wear during the night are what helped him. He said they were annoying to sleep with but better than being in pain. He still uses the shoe inserts (Birkenstock) made for PF and it stays pretty much under control.
