We all know that walking is good for us, and many have a step count on their phone or smart
watch. But how do you decide what a good goal for a daily step count is?
A group of researchers recently published the results of a decades long study.
They followed almost 5000 people. They measured how many steps they took a day and then
followed their health over the next 10+ years.
They discovered that the more steps you take a day the less likely you are to die, and they
even broke it down into cancer and cardiovascular disease.
This is their graph:
watch. But how do you decide what a good goal for a daily step count is?
A group of researchers recently published the results of a decades long study.
They followed almost 5000 people. They measured how many steps they took a day and then
followed their health over the next 10+ years.
They discovered that the more steps you take a day the less likely you are to die, and they
even broke it down into cancer and cardiovascular disease.
This is their graph:
As you can see on the graph- the people that only walked 2000 steps a day was more than 4
times more likely to die compared to people that walked 12.000 steps a day. The cancer and
cardiovascular graphs look similar.
times more likely to die compared to people that walked 12.000 steps a day. The cancer and
cardiovascular graphs look similar.
For cardiovascular and cancer as well as overall mortality, it shows that the higher the number
of steps we take in a day- the less likely we are to die. More than 12,000 steps a day does not
seem to change the rate much.
They did not find any difference in how fast people walked or even ran, so taking a leisurely
stroll is just as beneficial as running or walking fast.
That is not to say that there are no additional benefits to getting your heart rate up and enjoying aerobic exercise. There are many studies supporting that.
What this study teaches us however is the importance of checking how many steps we take
overall, and try to find a routine that gets us close to 12.000 steps a day.
Dogs are great motivators, parking in the farthest corner of the parking lot is a good way to get
extra steps in too. Getting out in nature has many additional benefits, but a treadmill will do if
that is the most practical setup. Lets start counting steps!
of steps we take in a day- the less likely we are to die. More than 12,000 steps a day does not
seem to change the rate much.
They did not find any difference in how fast people walked or even ran, so taking a leisurely
stroll is just as beneficial as running or walking fast.
That is not to say that there are no additional benefits to getting your heart rate up and enjoying aerobic exercise. There are many studies supporting that.
What this study teaches us however is the importance of checking how many steps we take
overall, and try to find a routine that gets us close to 12.000 steps a day.
Dogs are great motivators, parking in the farthest corner of the parking lot is a good way to get
extra steps in too. Getting out in nature has many additional benefits, but a treadmill will do if
that is the most practical setup. Lets start counting steps!
Recent Comments