A new study suggests that hitting 7,000 steps a day could be sufficient to ward off a range of serious illnesses, offering a more attainable target than the widely publicised 10,000-step goal.
While many find the latter difficult to achieve, new research indicates “sizeable” health benefits are still possible with fewer daily steps.
Academics from the University of Sydney in Australia led the study, examining data from dozens of global studies, including those in the UK, involving tens of thousands of adults.
Their findings revealed that individuals consistently walking 7,000 steps daily appeared to gain significant protection against various diseases.
This included a 25 per cent lower risk of heart disease, a 14 per cent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, a 38 per cent decrease in dementia, and a 22 per cent reduction in depression.
Experts noted that even modest step counts of 4,000 steps a day could yield benefits over very low activity levels.
However, they also clarified that “10,000 steps per day will still be better than 7,000 steps,” with the higher count leading to even more comprehensive health advantages.
The researchers also found that when people walked 7,000 daily steps, compared to walking 2,000 steps, they were 47 per cent less likely to die during the follow-up periods of the studies analysed.
And while the number of steps walked did not sway whether or not a person got cancer, people who walked more steps were significantly less likely to die from cancer – with 37 per cent lower odds of cancer death compared to people who walked fewer steps.
“Although 10,000 steps per day can still be a viable target for those who are more active, 7,000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a more realistic and achievable target for some,” the authors wrote in the journal Lancet Public Health.
They added: “Even modest daily step counts were associated with health benefits.
“7,000 steps per day was associated with sizeable risk reductions across most outcomes, compared with the reference of 2,000 steps per day.”
Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Bailey, Reader – Sedentary Behaviour and Health, Brunel University of London, said: “The finding that doing 5000-7000 steps per day is an important addition to the literature which helps to debunk the myth that 10,000 steps per day should be the target for optimal health.
“This study suggested that 5000-7000 steps per day can significantly reduce the risk of many health outcomes, but that does not mean you cannot get benefits if you don’t meet this target.
“The study also found that health risks were reduced with each 1000 extra steps per day, up to a maximum of 12,000 steps per day. So just adding more steps from your starting point can have important benefits for health.”
Dr Andrew Scott, senior Lecturer in clinical exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth, added: “In most cases, the 10,000 steps per day will still be better than 7,000 steps, just by decreasing margins of health benefit return.
“More important than the exact number of steps, it demonstrates that overall, more is always better and people should not focus too much on the numbers, particularly on days where activity is limited.
“The steps per day is useful when people’s exercise is weight-bearing, however cycling, swimming and rowing are not well-represented by the steps per day model.”
