Healthy Habits: 10,000 Steps Per Day

According to the World Health Organization (“WHO”), physical inactivity levels are rising in many countries with major implications for the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (“NCD”) and the general health of the population worldwide. As a matter of fact, physical inactivity is a leading risk factor for global mortality. Sounds pretty serious, doesn’t it?

There’s probably quite little you can do to improve the general health of the entire population worldwide, but what you can do, is to make sure You at least take care of getting a sufficient amount of physical activity in your daily life. An easy way to do that? You got it, by accumulating steps!

NOTE: To unlock the 10K Steps Habit in the Healthzilla app, you need to a) sync your steps data b) actually walk at least 10,000 steps within a day!

How many steps should I walk each day? Is 10,000 steps healthy?

Like many of us, you have probably heard about the 10,000 steps rule, which is also what we measure in our Healthzilla app for a specific reason. But to get the facts straight — and we sure are keen on doing that — there is no scientific basis that 10,000 steps a day would be some magical threshold for a healthy life. Some research shows that longevity benefits level off after 7,500 steps, at least for older women. At the same time, a study on highly active Amish communities averaging well above 10,000 steps have the lowest rates of obesity in America.

Actually, being too stringent about the number of steps can decrease the pleasure you can get from being active. Instead what really matters is proper and sufficient physical exertion and activity level, given your age and physical condition. And that you enjoy it!

WHO’s 'Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health’ provides the following guideline in order to improve not only cardiorespiratory, muscular fitness, and bone health but also to reduce the risk of NCDs and depression (emphasis added):

1. All healthy adults aged 18–64 years should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week, or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity.

2. Aerobic activity should be performed in bouts of at least 10 minutes duration.

3. For additional health benefits, adults should increase their moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes per week, or engage in 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity.

4. Muscle-strengthening activities should be done involving major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

In case you are younger than 18 or older than 64 years, you can check the appropriate WHO recommendations for you here.

What is “moderate-intensity”, exactly?

You are probably now wondering "what is moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity?” and does it relate to steps somehow. Yet again we can refer to WHO (emphasis added):

On an absolute scale, moderate-intensity refers to an activity that is performed at 3.0–5.9 times the intensity of rest. On a scale relative to an individual’s personal capacity, moderate-intensity physical activity is usually a 5 or 6 on a scale of 0–10.
Aerobic activity, also called endurance activity, improves cardiorespiratory fitness. Examples of aerobic activity include brisk walking, running, bicycling, jumping rope, and swimming.

So what does this mean in practice? Very simply, it means that in order to start acquiring those health benefits and to avoid some major health-related risks, you need to walk briskly (remember: relative to your personal capacity!) for at least 10 minutes at a time, and accumulate 150 minutes in total per week (that’s roughly 20 minutes per day on average). An easy way to get it done? Aim for that 10,000 steps a day at a brisk pace and you are already well on your way! And do remember: enjoy taking those steps as it really isn’t about how many you take as long as your overall weekly activity level is sufficient.

Almost forgot: the additional health benefits and muscle-training activities mentioned in WHO’s recommendation we discuss in our other articles which you can also find in our Science section.

Additional resources:

If you are interested in learning more about the health benefits related to ’steps’ you can check the following scientifically backed resources:

Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health, World Health Organization (link: https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_recommendations/en/)
Leisure-time physical activity protects from type 2 diabetes after taking familial and genetic effects into account - a 30-minute walk every other day is already enough (link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-010-1875-9)
Exercise as medicine – evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in 26 different chronic diseases (link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/sms.12581)
Association of step volume and intensity with all-cause mortality in older women - more steps per day are associated with lower mortality rates until approximately 7,500 steps per day (link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2734709)
The hidden cost of personal quantification - people who tracked their steps walked further, but they enjoyed it less (link: https://scholars.duke.edu/display/pub1134328)