Do I Really Need 10,000 Steps A Day?

3 min

The idea of walking 10,000 steps a day for health was never based on evidence—it reportedly began as a marketing campaign from a Japanese company trying to sell pedometers.  Nevertheless, the number took hold as a goal for millions of people. Walking is certainly better than sitting, and logging 10,000 steps a day is a worthy goal, but the truth is more complicated than that.

A number of studies over the years have tried to establish an ideal goal for daily walking. Not all of them have been useful since they measure different things, such as walking even a little versus being sedentary. In retrospect, many of them seem self-evident: One 2017 study found, unsurprisingly, that Scottish letter carriers who walked 15,000 steps a day had better cardiac health than postal workers who sat 15 hours a day. That’s not very helpful information for a person who wants to get enough exercise to protect their heart.

So how much should the average person walk?

In 2023, a paper in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology looked at multiple studies that provided data on more than 200,000 people over more than 7 years. The authors divided people into four groups based on how much they walked each day and found evidence that, overall, the more steps a day someone took, the lower their risk of death from a cardiovascular event and of death from any cause. Compared with the most sedentary group (with a median step count of just 2,337 steps a day), each of three other groups showed reduced risk of mortality as the median number of steps increased. Those in the first comparison group (median 3,982 steps a day) had a 16 percent reduced incidence of death from a cardiovascular cause. The second group (median 6,661 steps a day) had a 49 percent reduction. The third group (median 10,413 steps a day) showed a 77 percent lower incidence of cardiovascular mortality.

Within those groups, it was notable that every 500-step increase in daily walking had a measurable effect on cardiovascular risk. You don’t have to go from sedentary to 10,000 steps a day to improve your health—start by just adding more daily steps to whatever you’re doing now.

In addition, a 2025 paper published in Lancet Public Health reviewed dozens of studies from an 11-year period to find evidence linking daily step counts to cardiovascular disease as well as to dementia, falls, and death. Like the earlier review, this analysis found that higher step counts were associated with lower risk of cardiovascular deaths; the investigators found an inflection point at about 7,000 steps a day, where cardiovascular risk was substantially reduced when compared to a sedentary 2,000 steps a day. That’s good news for those who find 10,000 steps unattainable.

It’s important to note that not all walking is created equal—ambling slowly on a morning stroll with your dog is not the kind of aerobic walking that provides the greatest benefit. For best results you should walk at a brisk rate of about 4 miles per hour. Depending on your stride length, it should take about an hour to log between 6,000 and 10,000 steps.  You don’t have to do it all at once—several short walks a day are as good as one long one.

The bottom line is that being sedentary is bad for your heart, and every increase in your daily step count is better than sitting. Don’t fixate on 10,000 steps—just get moving.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

Sources
Banach M, Lewek J, Surma S, Penson PE, Sahebkar A, Martin SS, Bajraktari G, Henein MY, Reiner Ž, Bielecka-Dąbrowa A, Bytyçi I. “The association between daily step count and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a meta-analysis.” Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2023 Dec 21;30(18):1975-1985. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwad229. Erratum in: Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2023 Dec 21;30(18):2045. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwad263. PMID: 37555441. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih/37555441/

Ding D, Nguyen B, Nau T, Luo M, Del Pozo Cruz B, Dempsey PC, Munn Z, Jefferis BJ, Sherrington C, Calleja EA, Hau Chong K, Davis R, Francois ME, Tiedemann A, Biddle SJH, Okely A, Bauman A, Ekelund U, Clare P, Owen K. “Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.” Lancet Public Health. 2025 Aug;10(8):e668-e681. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00164-1. Epub 2025 Jul 23. Erratum in: Lancet Public Health. 2025 Sep;10(9):e731. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00199-9. PMID: 40713949. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih/40713949/