Most of us have heard of the daily step goal of 10,000 steps. Personally, I don’t worry about my daily steps; I just focus on regularly walking my dogs and getting my weekly exercise. Plus, does everyone have time for 10,000 steps every day? The good news is that researchers have recently pinpointed a more manageable figure, so we can still feel good about getting those health benefits, even if we don’t quite make all 10,000 steps.
The new daily step count
In brand new research published in the medical journal The Lancet, there’s a new sweet spot in town, and it’s less than 10,000. The researchers looked at 31 studies involving over 160,000 adults.
7,000 is the new sweet spot
They revealed that when compared to walking only 2,000 steps per day, walking 7,000 steps a day was associated with:
- A 47% lower risk of all-cause mortality.
- 25% reduced risk of heart disease.
- 6% reduced cancer risk.
- 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
- 38% reduced risk of dementia.
- 28% lower chance of falls.
The researchers also revealed that the chances of getting depression dropped by 22% when participants walked around 7,000 steps a day. This multitude of health benefits maxed out at 7,000 steps. The only exception was heart health, which continued to show improvement beyond those 7,000 steps. The researchers noted that some of the studies included in this meta-analysis are on the smaller side, such as those involving cancer and dementia.
What if you only walk 2,000 steps?
This meta-analysis showed that even if you only get 2,000 steps in, you’ll still get some health benefits if you were previously inactive. The 7,000 steps are even better and linked to clinically significant improvements in health. For those with a longer stride or longer legs, you might manage those 7,000 strides in about an hour or less.
7,000 strides to fight depression
This study aligns with previous research concluding that 7,000 steps a day can help with depression. In fact, in this interesting study, those who managed 7,000 daily steps were 31% less likely to suffer from the symptoms of depression, and doing 10,000 didn’t provide any further benefits regarding depression. The walking pace didn’t matter, as long as people managed those 7,000 steps.
Tracking your physical activity is easier with the advent of fitness trackers and wearables. The benefits of walking are abundant, and I’m personally happy to hear about a more attainable daily step goal. I think it’s time to walk my fluffy dogs.
