Walking 10,000 steps every day? Is it really worth the hype

Fitness enthusiasts are obsessed with it. People who are on a weight loss journey are raving about it. Your smartwatch probably nudges you to hit the 10,000-step goal daily. But is walking 10,000 steps a day really beneficial for your health, or just another fitness myth? Let’s take a look.

What are experts saying about walking 10,000 steps a day

Dr. Manan Vora, a leading orthopaedic surgeon and sports doctor, based in Mumbai, India, has no debate about the fact that walking is indeed best for health. “According to a massive research conducted and published in a leading neurology journal, it has been found that walking about 10,000 steps per day results in a direct reduction in risk of heart disease, heart failure, stroke, 13 types of cancers, and dementia,” he said, quoting the latest research.

Dr. Vora also stressed that walking at a higher intensity and faster pace improves the results. “Try to hit those 10k steps in a day. Try to incorporate walking in your day-to-day routine. Maybe take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you're going to be on a phone call, walk and talk. Also, make sure you walk at a good pace and at a good intensity. Do this and you'll probably be outliving everyone around you,” he said, in a video shared on Instagram.

Science says, the more you walk, the more the benefits

It is important to understand that our body is designed to move. So more the movement, the more the benefits. The world’s largest study shows that the more you walk, the lower your risk of death. You will get these benefits even if you walk fewer than 5,000 steps. The study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that walking at least 3967 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from any cause. 2337 steps a day was linked to reduced risk of dying from diseases of cardiovascular diseases. They observed a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause with an increase of 1000 steps. When 500 steps were added, there was a 7% reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease.

“Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better. We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical, or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates. In addition, our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease,” lead researcher of the study, Maciej Banach, Professor of Cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, and Adjunct Professor at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement.


Forget walking 10,000 steps a day. Another 2023 study found that climbing more than five flights of stairs daily could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20%. “Short bursts of high-intensity stair climbing are a time-efficient way to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and lipid profile, especially among those unable to achieve the current physical activity recommendations. These findings highlight the potential advantages of stair climbing as a primary preventive measure for ASCVD in the general population,” co-corresponding author Dr. Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, said.

A study published in JAMA Neurology found that the pace of the walk is as important as completing 10,000 steps. “The take-home message here is that for protective health benefits, people could not only ideally aim for 10,000 steps a day but also aim to walk faster,”co-lead author Dr Matthew Ahmadi, Research Fellow at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health, said.