Walking: forget the 10 thousand! Here's how many steps per day you should really take according to the new studies

According to several studies, it is not necessary to take 10 thousand steps but 7 thousand are the ideal target to reach to reduce the risk of premature death

How many steps should we take each day? The theories are many and hard to die is the false myth that one must necessarily reach 10 thousand steps a day. A number of studies seem to agree that reaching 7000 steps is ideal for reducing the risk of premature death.

A new peer-reviewed study published on JAMA Network Open has revealed a 50% to 70% lower risk of premature mortality from all causes for those who walk at least 7 steps a day. Furthermore, reaching the 10.000-step milestone was not associated by this research with further reduction in the risk of premature mortality. Also Read: New Study Reveals Exactly How Much You Need to Walk to Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease

It would therefore not help at all to reach 10 thousand steps which, as we had already told you in a previous article, are nothing more than a target established during a marketing campaign but which has nothing scientific.

A Japanese company in 1964, at the time of the Olympic Games, released a pedometer device, encouraging users to reach the milestone of 10 thousand and this number has taken hold as if it were an absolute truth. Read also: Walking: no, it is not true that you have to take at least 10 thousand steps a day

But the latest study on the benefits of walking 7000 steps a day isn't the only one that sets this new target. Previous research from 2019 found that more steps are linked to lower death rates of up to around 7.500 per day.

Yet another study, conducted by the University of Oregon, establishes that 5000-7000 steps could be fine but as long as at least 3000 are done more quickly, i.e. walking fast. In this case, participants enjoyed similar health benefits to those who walked twice as much. These benefits include lower blood pressure and lower BMI and blood cholesterol levels.

In reality, there is still no univocal number of steps recommended by everyone and for all types of people, different for age, sex, physical characteristics, presence of any pathologies, etc.

Future research on step counting will be useful and necessary, especially to find out if or how a higher step count is associated with other health outcomes besides premature mortality, such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and mental health. .

In the meantime, however, we can set ourselves the goal of increasing what we do every day. In fact, experts suggest that improving your current step count can make a difference. As Dr. Paluch stated:

If you are at 4.000, try to get to 5.000. If you are at 5.000, try to get to 6.000. You can find little ways to incorporate more steps into your life.