Think you need to take 10,000 steps a day? That myth is being busted.
No time to do sports every day because your job takes up too much of your time or because you have to go home quickly to take care of your family? No time either on the weekend because you have to do the shopping, your household chores? Your daily steps may be the solution to doing sports.
But for many, there is a rule: take 10,000 steps a day. Except that this is not true and proven according to various specialists. So where does this myth come from? In 1965, a Japanese company launched a pedometer called Manpo-Kei. The translation of this name is “meter of 10,000 steps”. So you understand, everyone assumed that these 10,000 steps were the ideal daily amount to maintain good physical activity.
An urban legend? Most devices that monitor our physical activity, such as smart watches or activity bracelets, have simply taken Manpo-Kei’s 10,000 steps as a reference. Wrongly according to most scientists and the various studies on the subject.
A study published in JAMA found that the optimal number of daily steps was around 8,000. Doing more only offers marginal benefits. According to a meta-study published in The Lancet, 7,000 steps would be necessary for those over 60. Based on analyses of the various data, it was concluded that the risk of mortality was reduced by 50% in older people who increased their daily steps from 3,000 to 7,000 steps.
Surprisingly, if you are under 60, walking more than 8,000 steps can even be harmful because according to the same study, we should not even consider this possibility because it would slightly increase the risk of mortality instead of reducing it. The WHO does not focus specifically on the number of steps to achieve, but more on the intensity of the activity, and its duration. It therefore recommends “practicing at least, during the week, 150 minutes of moderate-intensity endurance activity or at least 75 minutes of sustained-intensity endurance activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate and sustained-intensity activity”.
In Ouest France, Martine Duclos, head of the sports medicine department at the Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, who also directs the National Observatory of Physical Activity and Sedentary Lifestyle, explains that 10,000 steps per day “would correspond to a good hour and a half of walking per day, which is not feasible for many people today”. She therefore recommends “walking 6,000 steps per day, or at least 30 minutes of daily walking at a good pace, and this, at least five times per week. This is enough, and it is achievable”.