You’ve likely heard that you should be setting a goal to walk 10,000 steps every day. While the goal to move consistently throughout the day is great, the 10,000-step goal is actually rooted in a 1960s marketing slogan from a Japanese step-counter: “Let’s walk 10,000 steps a day.” From there, 10,000 steps stuck with other pedometer companies and wove its way into global health recommendations. But is 10,000 steps really the target?

It’s About the Movement, Not the Numbers
What’s most important each day is an individual’s regular movement. The 10,000-step goal can be useful to motivate people to get up and move—the more steps you take during the day, the more likely you’re getting regular movement: the real key to unlocking the health benefits associated with a high step goal. As for the 10,000-step target, experts agree that 7,500 steps each day will provide the same health benefits as the higher number. 

The Science of Steps
In 2019, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study that investigated the daily steps of almost 17,000 senior women for a period of four years. In the study, they found that:

• Women who took at least 4,400 steps each day had a 41% lower mortality rate than women who averaged 2,700 steps.
• Women taking more than 4,400 steps each day had progressively lower mortality rates, until leveling at 7,500 steps per day.
• Women who averaged more than 7,500 steps each day did not have lower mortality rates than women who took 7,500 steps each day, confirming the notion that 7,500 is a more accurate target than the commonly stated 10,000 steps.

In addition to the JAMA study, other research found similar results, including a recent University of Massachusetts-Amherst study that demonstrated adults over 60 who walked between 6,000–9,000 steps each day had a 40–50% reduction in cardiovascular events when compared to peers who averaged 2,000 steps per day. 

How do Step Counts Relate to Exercise?
In 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released guidelines that stated adults should target at least 150–300 minutes of moderate physical activity (or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity) each week to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce health risks. Translating that amount of exercise into steps equates to approximately 7,000–8,000 steps each day, in line with what other research has indicated. From an orthopedic perspective, HHS also indicates that “walking up to 10,000 steps per day does not appear to worsen osteoarthritis of the knee.”

If not Steps, What Goals Should We Set?
Setting a 7,500+ step goal every day is a great way to ensure you’re leading an active lifestyle. But if you’re more of a cyclist, a runner, a yogi, or a HIIT class kind of individual, it may be more useful to use movement time for your daily or weekly goal. For example, if you complete a 30-minute spin class and 20 minutes of strength training, you're 50 minutes into exercise without taking a single step. 30-45 minutes of moderate movement each day (a brisk walk, for example) is a great target and will land you within the HHS guidelines for physical activity.

And if you like a step goal, keep it! Johns Hopkins Medicine found that users who consistently wore fitness trackers increased their steps per day by more than a mile compared to not wearing a tracker. And more movement is a good thing, and helps individuals’ overall health.

More Movement is a Good Thing
Consistent movement during the day is important, especially as people tend to sit for longer periods of time at their desks. Whether it’s a daily step goal or a target time for movement, integrating more regular movement into your routine is an important part of an active, healthy lifestyle.