Walking is an activity from which you can benefit in more than one way. It’s a great way to improve overall health, to maintain a healthy weight, and it can also increase your happiness levels. It’s often said that our bodies require 10,000 steps every day in order to reap those benefits, but is that really necessary?
You may be surprised to learn that the idea of 10,000 daily steps came from a Japanese pedometer manufacturer. Manpo-kei (which translates to 10,000 steps meter) came out in 1965 and the tradition was continued by the company FitBit years later. FitBit devices also came with a 10,000 steps standard and made us all believe that’s the real requirement if we want to stay in shape.
While it can be beneficial to adopt this healthy habit and walk more every day, there’s no proof that more steps will give you more health benefits. Ten thousand steps isn’t significantly better than 5,000 steps. Reaching 10,000 steps is not only physically demanding for some people, but it also requires a lot of time that you may or may not have.
Harvard professor Dr. I-Min Lee did a study on women aged 62-101 and concluded that walking 4,400 steps is very beneficial and enough.
