Fitness magazines often cite 10,000 steps as the optimum number of steps you should walk a day.
This figure is widely regarded as the number of steps you should walk every day to stay fit and trim.
However, 10,000 steps is a generalisation with zero scientific groundings. The number actually stems from the backstory of a Japanese clockmaker that created the pedometer in the 1960s that set a target of 10,000 steps.
In the early 2000s, I-Min Lee at the Harvard University School of Public Health undertook a significant study that found women who averaged 4,400 steps a day had lower mortality rates than those who averaged 2,700 steps a day.
The research also found that 7,500 steps delivered the highest level of health benefits.
However, the number of steps you should walk depends on the fitness, age and ability of the individual.
Walk Studies
Another intensive study investigating the health benefits of walking determined:
- under 5000 steps was a health risk,
- 7500 is low activity,
- 9,999 steps is somewhat active
- over 10,000 is active
- over 15,000 is highly active
Experts typically use 5000 steps as the minimum number. Walking less than 5000 steps a day can lead to weight gain, increase your risk of bone loss, muscle atrophy, and diabetes.
According to the NHS, the average person in Britain only walks between 3000 and 4000 steps. This puts you in a higher risk category of contracting ill health.
You can start to monitor your health today by counting the number of steps you walk a day. All you have to do is download the sweatcoin app. It works like a pedometer and accessed directly from your smartphone.
Not only that, by downloading the Sweatcoin app enables you to trade your steps in for Sweatcoins (SWC) and earn discounts on thousands of merchandise. Take a look at How It Works on the Homepage.
