You've been fooled: The 10,000-steps-a-day goal is just a myth, even 2,000 will suffice

The 10,000 steps-a-day goal was nothing more than a marketing gimmick to sell pedometers in Japan in 1965 (Image: Canva)

Did you count the number of steps you logged in yesterday? Perhaps you’re sad you didn’t meet the default setting of 10,000-steps-a-day you’ve set on your fitness tracker app.

Before you start walking up and down your living room to make up for the deficit, here’s something to brighten your mood. According to a new study published by the journal JAMA Network Open, you don’t really need to hit the gold standard of 10,000 steps every day. Instead, walking even 8,000 steps, once or twice a week, should suffice and keep you safe from heart complications.

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It’s enough even if you don’t get to exercise regularly. “For people who face difficulties in exercising regularly — due to work or family obligations — achieving a little more daily steps only a couple of days per week would have meaningful health benefits,” said Kosuke Inoue, MD, PhD, the study’s lead author and an associate professor in the department of social epidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine and School of Public Health, Kyoto University, Japan.

The team studied data from more than 3,000 adults who had participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2005-2006 and tracked their step counts for one week. This was then measured against their mortality data. To their surprise, the team discovered that the participants who’d walked 8,000 or more steps a day, once or twice a week, recorded lower mortality rates, almost similar to those who logged in the same number of steps every day. In terms of numbers, the team found that people who took 8,000 steps once or twice a week recorded a 15 percent lower risk of dying in the next 10 years, and those who hit the 8,000-step mark three to seven days a week had a 16.5 percent lower risk.

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What’s intriguing is that participants who counted 8,000 steps for four or more days in a week didn’t record any reduction in their mortality risk. “Our study suggests walking itself—or moving your body in general—even for a couple of days per week has meaningful health benefits,” Dr. Inoue explained.

For years, people have monitored their steps with the goal of achieving 10,000 per day. This goal is even the default setting in many fitness trackers. And while there are a number of different theories on where the goal came from, some also wonder given this new research if it is still relevant. Concurs Gagan Arora, a Delhi-based celebrity coach and founder of Kosmic Fitness. “Everyone believes moving around to meet the goal of 10,000 steps a day is good for their health. Whether this is true or not, this step count thing has got people talking a lot more about health and fitness and that in itself is a good thing,” he said in an earlier interview to Moneycontrol.

Most experts suggest this daily count cap is just a buzzword and that there is no scientific basis to it. For instance, Bradley Serwer, MD, FACC, an interventional cardiologist and chief medical officer at CardioSolution quotes a study in JAMA Internal Medicine and says, ““We see a proportional relationship to the number of steps [you take] and [its impact on] lowering your risk.” "Even 2,000 steps per day can lower your risk of premature death by almost 10 percent according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. This study...suggests that 10,000 steps per day is associated with a lower risk of mortality, cancer, and cardiovascular disease,” he added.

A team of Harvard Medical School researchers who tried to investigate the truth and origins of the 10,000 steps goal was nothing more than a marketing gimmick to sell pedometers called Manpo-kei (“10 000 steps" in Japanese) in 1965. "That’s probably where today’s magic number comes from," the researchers wrote in the 2019 study published in the Journal of American Medical Association. They also studied smartphone data recorded by an accelerometer, which measures the number of steps taken, and found that the worldwide average number of steps accrued daily is approximately 5,000.

There is another problematic myth. Just meeting your daily step goal doesn’t ensure that you stay fit. “This has to be complemented with a workout of 30-60 minutes at least thrice a week,” said Kaustav Baruah, a Bengaluru-based CrossFit coach. “Our jobs tend to throw us into a sedentary pattern of sitting in one place for long hours. You should not do that, and that’s where the move alerts on your smartwatch and phone help. You need to have some movement almost every waking hour. The daily step goal gives people something to get out of their chair for and start thinking about fitness and a better lifestyle,” says Arora.