TAKE A STEP BACK: Study debunks 10,000 daily steps as myth

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We’ve all heard that walking 10,000 steps each day is the ideal target for living a healthy, and possibly longer life.

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Researchers out of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are declaring a miscount, however, and say that number might not give you a leg up after all.

A recent study found the popular myth that one must walk 10,000 steps to achieve health benefits is flawed. Getting between 6,000 and 8,000 daily steps is sufficient, the study found.

Taking these strides reduces the risk of early death for people who are 60 or older by 54%, according to the study, which noted walking more than 8,000 steps per day doesn’t bring any added benefits.

The research team perused 15 studies on how walking affected mortality for about 50,000 people across four continents.

“What we saw was this incremental reduction in risk as steps increase, until it levels off and the levelling occurred at different step values for older versus younger adults,” the author of the study, Dr. Amanda Paluch said, according to the New York Post. “Interestingly, the research found no definitive association with walking speed, beyond the total number of steps per day.”

Paluch said the 10,000-steps-per-day figure was not based on science, but rather was originally used in a 1964 Japanese ad campaign to sell pedometers.

“The major takeaway is there’s a lot of evidence suggesting that moving even a little more is beneficial, particularly for those who are doing very little activity,” Paluch said. “More steps per day are better for your health.”