In the era of Fitbits, Apple Watches, Oura rings, and smartphones that can track our every move, you\u2019ve almost certainly heard that 10,000 steps a day is the target. But why? How did that come to be the case?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no actual studies that had looked at \u201810,000 steps,\u2019\u201d at the time the Yamasa pedometer was developed, I-Min Lee<\/a>, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tells Popular Science. \u201cIt was a made-up number in the sense that 10,000 sounds good, it\u2019s easy to remember.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus, the character denoting 10,000 looks a little like a person walking<\/a>, she notes, adding \u201cpizazz.\u201d In other words, the fitness objective started out as little more than a marketing strategy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s only been in the last decade or so that scientists like Lee have really started to investigate the idea. In 2019, she and co-authors published a study of step volume<\/a> and all-cause mortality among older women. They found that far less than 10,000 steps could make a big difference for longevity. Women who averaged around 4,400 steps had significantly lower mortality rates over four years of follow-up than those who averaged about 2,700 steps. At higher activity levels, mortality rates decreased further. However, the apparent benefit petered out at about 7,500 steps. \u201cThis is the sweet spot,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n A new study published last month<\/a> in The Lancet suggests that trend holds true, not just for older women, but across age and gender divides. In a major review and meta-analysis of previously published work, researchers pooled and assessed data from hundreds of thousands of people across dozens of studies of mortality, disease risk, and even falls with fresh eyes. They found that \u201cyou start to see pretty profound benefits much sooner than 10,000 steps,\u201d says Philip Clare<\/a>, co-senior study author and a biostatistician at the University of Sydney in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps unsurprisingly, rates of dementia, cancer mortality, heart disease, falls, and all-cause mortality (i.e. cause of death for any reason) are all significantly lower for people who take more daily steps compared with their less active peers. But for all of these outcomes, the plots relating steps to risk are curves, not straight lines. Initially, the gained benefits per added stride are steep. Going from 2,000 steps a day to just 4,000 or so is associated with about a 30 percent decrease in all-cause mortality, Clare says. If you get up to about 7,000 steps, the benefit falls to nearly a 50 percent risk reduction, per the analysis. And then, things start to level out. At higher activity levels,\u201dyou get kind of an incremental return,\u201d he notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/japanese_character_for_10_000.jpg\")
The Japanese kanji that denotes 10,000. <\/p>\n
![\"Pedometer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/10000-steps-myth.jpg\")
\u00a0The largest study on the threshold yet indicates there\u2019s an easier number to aim for. Image: ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ps-ggs.jpg\")
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