10k Steps a Day: Fact or Fad?

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We all know this one: try to get in at least 10,000 steps per day.

However, such black-or-white, one-size-fits-all solutions are sometimes outdated or unfounded or lack the necessary nuance to be correct or helpful, which is why I’m not usually a fan of them.
 
But is this one bad? Or is there something to it?

What does the current scientific literature suggest?

In 2020, a study on nearly 5,000 people seemed to find that, compared to 4,000 steps per day, 8,000 was associated with a “considerably lower” risk of all-cause mortality, which is death from all causes.

On the other hand, when comparing 8,000 to 12,000 steps per day, there didn’t seem to be an equally meaningful difference between the two.

In other words, this paper suggests that stepping up your step count (see what I did there?) from 4,000 or less to 8,000 is going to have a larger impact on your health than if you were to continue increasing your steps from 8,000 to 12,000.

You’re probably going to get some extra benefits from a further “upgrade” to 12,000, but not to the same degree.

In 2022, a meta-analysis of 15 studies found that, the more steps per day the subjects did, up to 10,000 for younger adults under 60 and up to 8,000 for older adults over 60, the lower their mortality risk.

My interpretation of this paper is that the sweet spot to maximise the health benefits of walking seems to be 6,000-8,000 steps per day in older adults and 8,000-10,000 in younger adults.

Based on these two pieces of evidence, if your main goal is longevity, then you want to aim for a range of 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day if you’re under 60.

What does my coaching experience show?

From a health standpoint, I work with all my clients towards hitting at least 8,000 steps per day over time.

This habit tends to make them fitter, especially if they were much more sedentary to begin with and hadn’t exercised in a long time.

They also feel more energetic, less sluggish, and in overall better health.

Moreover, it helps regulate their circadian rhythms, which has a positive impact on sleep, digestion, metabolism, and hunger and fullness hormones, among other component of your well-being.

Finally, it encourages them to spend more time outdoors and hang out with their loved ones in more active ways, including walking, hiking, dancing, etc., which does wonders for their social and mental health.

From a body composition standpoint, the clients of mine who achieve the best fat loss results tend to average at least 10,000 steps per day during a fat loss phase.

This enables them to burn more calories, so that they can keep their caloric intake higher and/or their energy expenditure a little lower in order to achieve the same caloric deficit, which makes the dieting process easier to fit around the rest of their life.

For smaller clients––and myself, given that I’m 5ft tall––sometimes higher step counts in the 10,000 to 15,000 range are either necessary to achieve fat loss or beneficial in order to increase their maintenance calories.

When you’re smaller than average, your maintenance calories are also going to be lower than average.

This can make it difficult to achieve and maintain a healthy body composition in our modern obesogenic environment, which is designed to tempt us to eat large portions of high-calorie foods all too frequently.

That’s why moving more can be advantageous.

By the way, if you’re on the shorter side, too, and you’re struggling with fat loss, I recorded a whole podcast that’ll help you here.

Finally, if your goal is muscle gain, walking is a low-intensity activity that can aid recovery from training.

Furthermore, it can contribute to achieving or maintaining a reasonable fitness level, which will result in better training performance and thus greater gains over the long term.

For this reason, when a client is fit enough and has developed the habit of doing at least 8,000 steps on the regular, I usually pair this step target with some cardio.

The goal is to stress the cardiovascular system at both lower and greater intensities in order to develop a well-rounded physique that doesn’t just look a certain way, but also feels healthy and performs well.

In summary, even though it’s “one-size-fits-all”, I don’t think that aiming for 10,000 steps per day is a bad recommendation to follow.

However, it’s important to note that you can likely gain a large amount of health benefits at a lower step count, too, and specifically if you increase your current steps to at least 8,000 per day.

So, rather than the black-or-white 10,000-step figure, I’d aim for a range of 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day.

Practical Takeaways
 

1. Based on the research I’m aware of, 8,000 to 10,000 steps may be a great range to maximise the health benefits of walking if you’re under 60, and 6,000 to 8,000 may be provide equivalent benefits if you’re over 60.
2. In a fat loss phase, averaging 10,000 steps per day will help increase the size of your caloric deficit and can be especially beneficial if you’re a smaller or more sedentary person.

 
Thanks for reading. May you make the best gains.
 
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