Do you think you should take 10,000 steps a day? This myth is falling.
No time to exercise every day because your job takes up too much of your time or because you have to get home quickly to take care of your family? No time on weekends either because you have to do shopping or household chores? Your daily steps may be the solution to doing sport.
But for many, there is one rule: take 10,000 steps every day. Except that this is not true and proven according to different specialists. So where does this myth come from? In 1965, a Japanese company released a pedometer called Manpo-Kei. The translation of this name is “meter of 10,000 steps”. So you guessed it, everyone assumed that those 10,000 steps were the ideal daily amount to maintain good physical activity.
An urban legend? Most devices that monitor our physical activity, such as smart watches or activity trackers, simply took Manpo-Kei’s 10,000 steps as a reference. Wrongly according to most scientists and the various studies on the subject.
A study published in JAMA notably revealed that the optimal number of daily steps was around 8,000. Doing more only offers marginal benefits. According to a meta study published in The Lancet, even 7,000 steps would be necessary for those over 60. From the analyzes of the different data, it was concluded that the risk of mortality was reduced by 50% in older people who increased the number of daily steps from 3000 to 7000 steps.
Very surprisingly, if you are under 60 years old, walking more than 8000 steps can even be harmful because according to this same study, we should not even consider this possibility because it would slightly increase the risk of mortality instead of reducing it. The WHO does not specifically focus on the number of steps to be achieved, but more on the intensity of the activity and its duration. She therefore recommends “practicing, during the week, at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity endurance activity or at least 75 minutes of sustained-intensity endurance activity, or an equivalent combination of activities of moderate and sustained intensity.
In Ouest France, Martine Duclos, head of the sports medicine department at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, who also directs the National Observatory of Physical Activity and Sedentary Life, explains that 10,000 steps per day “would correspond to a good hour and a half of walking per day, which is not feasible for many people today.” She therefore recommends “walking 6,000 steps per day, or at least 30 minutes of daily walking at a good pace, and this, at least five times a week. It’s enough, and it’s achievable.”
