You may have heard the common advice that you should aim for 10,000 steps a day, and may have even felt disheartened when you couldn’t reach it. Exercise is crucial, but achieving this target can be challenging, particularly if you have a desk job or other responsibilities.
However, one doctor suggests that there’s no need to feel guilty, as the ‘10,000 steps a day’ concept is actually a marketing gimmick. On his podcast Feel Better, Live More, BBC Breakfast’s resident doctor, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, spoke with paleoanthropologist Dr Daniel Lieberman.
He revealed that the idea of “10,000 steps a day came from this accelerometer that was created in Japan just before the Olympics in 64”. Dr Lieberman, who hails from Massachusetts, USA, suggested that the number 10,000 was chosen because it’s an “auspicious number in Japan”, leading to the creation of the ‘10,000 steps meter’.
In the lead-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Yamasa saw an opportunity to tap into the growing interest in fitness. They developed the world’s first wearable step-counter, named the Manpo-Kei, which translates to “10,000-step meter”.
It’s thought that the company picked the number randomly, but due to its catchy nature, it has remained popular ever since.
He continued, in a clip of the podcast uploaded to TikTok: “So, there is no one number of steps to take per day. The evidence on exercise is pretty darn clear. Anything is better than nothing. If you’re completely sedentary, more steps climbing the stairs, parking your car further away from the shop…. anything is better than nothing. More is better, and at a certain point the benefits seem to tail off.”
Despite this, he advised against fixating on a specific number as it’s “not only impossible”, but also “sends an incorrect message”. Meanwhile, the NHS promotes the idea of 150 minutes of physical activity a week for those aged between 19 and 64, noting that walking, despite being simple and low-impact, greatly aids in building stamina, burning calories, and improving heart health.
Another study, published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology in 2023, found that walking just 4,000 steps a day could be enough to reduce a person’s risk of early death. For every 1,000 steps you do additionally, it’s believed to reduce the risk of early death by 15%. Additional steps you do can reap even more benefits, and the team found no limit.
In the study, which drew on data from 17 previous studies involving 226,889 people, who were followed for an average of seven years, anything below 5,000 steps a day was counted as a “sedentary lifestyle”. Other, separate studies have found that walking for just 30 minutes a day can help you lose weight, and the Nordic Walking technique can help you burn 20% more calories.
Many weren’t aware where the 10,000 steps rule came from. One person said: “So interesting! Mine totally varies day to day.” Another added: “This! So fed up with the 10k steps. Just start exchanging the times you wouldn’t walk for an actual walk.”