Health benefits taper off long before you hit 10,000 steps

Researchers may have gotten a little bit closer to a consensus on the number of steps needed for a healthy lifestyle. And it’s less than you think.

New data presented at this year’s American Heart Association Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle, and Cardiometabolic Health Conference highlights 4,500 steps as the ideal number of steps a day to promote longevity among healthy adults. Participants didn’t even have to perform them all at once to reap dramatic health benefits.

“Older adults face many barriers to participating in structured exercise programs, so some may find it more convenient and enjoyable to increase everyday walking behaviors, like parking slightly further from their destination or doing some extra housework or yard work,” the authors explained in a media release.

Health benefits are linked to 4,500 steps

The research was derived from 16,732 women who were all over the age of 60. Each participant was fitted with a step-counting device for one week and then subsequently monitored for six years.

Follow-up analysis revealed that participants who took more than 2,000 steps a day in uninterrupted sessions enjoyed a 32% risk decrease for early death. This value was roughly the same for participants who received a comparable value in several intermittent sessions throughout the day. In either case, health benefits appeared to plateau at 4,500 steps.

This contradicts previously conducted reports that have suggested a higher number of steps contribute to optimal health. The general recommendation has historically been 10,000 steps daily.

It should be noted that the step-counting device employed in the new paper did not distinguish between walking intensities or speed.

A recent study published in the Mayo Clinic’s medical journal concluded that participants who habitually walk and maintain a brisk walking pace enjoy a significantly longer life expectancy across all relevant lifestyle factors. Conversely, subjects who reported slow-walking paces experienced shorter life expectancy.

“Technological advances made in recent decades have allowed researchers to measure short spurts of activity. Whereas, in the past we were limited to only measuring activities people could recall on a questionnaire,” says study leader Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. student in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina.

WiGait devices—recently developed by researchers at MIT—allow clinicians to track and log a person’s walking speed. These devices may be used in further analysis to see if pace alters any of the findings newly presented by The American Heart Association.

“With the help of wearable devices, more research is indicating that any type of movement is better than remaining sedentary,” the authors concluded in a media release.