Sun, Aug-06-23, 12:52
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Do I really need to walk 10,000 steps a day?
Every stride helps, writes Emily Dixon
Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re probably tracking your steps. It might be your smartphone or smartwatch automatically keeping tally. You might be wearing a Fitbit or one of the many other fitness trackers on the market today. No matter the product, the default goal is likely to be the same: 10,000 steps a day.
The health benefits of keeping active are well documented — the UK chief medical officers advise 150 minutes a week of “moderate intensity” physical activity for people aged 19 to 64. For those who can, brisk walking is an easy way to tick that box — but do we really need to aim for quite so many steps?
According to Professor I-Min Lee, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, the 10,000-step goal originates not from a public health body but from a marketing campaign. As an interest in fitness soared in the wake of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese company Yamasa Tokei Keiki launched a pedometer called the manpo-kei, which translates as the 10,000-step meter. The figure stuck. “I think primarily it’s a very easy number to remember,” Lee says.
Today fitness trackers are a multibillion-pound industry and the 10,000-step goal holds so much sway that it has obtained an all-or-nothing quality: come up short of that figure and you might as well have stayed in bed. That’s a problem, Lee says. “It might discourage people from being physically active because they think that’s the standard, and if they can’t reach that standard then they might as well not try. And that’s really not true.”
In a 2019 study of older women with an average age of 72 Lee found that mortality rates decreased as step counts increased. But the women saw health benefits long before 10,000 steps: those taking just 4,400 steps a day had a 41 per cent lower mortality rate than those taking 2,700 or fewer. At 7,500 steps the health benefits plateaued: women taking more steps did not see a significant change in mortality rate. A subsequent meta-analysis published in the Lancet suggested that the plateau is lower for older people: for those under 60, it occurred between 8,000 and 10,000 steps.
In short, you can reap the health benefits of walking with a far lower step count. “Doing 7,000 steps is better than doing 5,000 steps,” says Dr Jo Blodgett, an epidemiologist at University College London. “Basically, what we say is some steps are good, more steps are better.”
There’s another problem with the 10,000-step goal, Blodgett says. “The number of steps doesn’t account for how fast people are walking. We know that the faster you walk, the more cardiovascular benefit you’ll gain, so it might be better to take fewer steps but at a faster pace.”
If you find step counts a useful metric in charting your fitness goals, Blodgett recommends making small, incremental changes. “Try adding 1,000 steps and see if you can hit that target consistently. If you can, set a new target, adding on another 500 to 1,000 steps a day.”
“If you start small you won’t get injured, and if you set yourself an achievable goal it will give you a sense of accomplishment,” Lee says. “Don’t worry about others. Look at yourself — whatever you can add to your baseline physical activity, that’s great.”
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...a-day-lmfzf25md |
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