Health - Wellness
The Number Of Steps You Should Walk Every Day Isn't What You Think
By PHOEBE MCRAE
Whether you consider walking to be your main source of exercise or not, you're probably aware of the number of steps we should be taking every day — usually around 10,000, right? Well, not exactly.
According to Professor Catrine Tudor-Locke of the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the reason the 10,000 steps per day guideline has been adopted is that it's the number most studies work with. "This number keeps being reinforced because of the way research studies are designed," she says.
Tudor-Locke says that if a study shows that 10,000 steps is better for you than 5,000 steps, it will suddenly be reported that 10,000 steps is the number everyone needs to take daily. However, she says that this is flawed, as the study “didn't test 8,000, for example, and it didn't test 12,000."
Ultimately, when it comes to the minimum number of steps we should be walking every day, everyone is different. Some will say to aim for 10,000, some will say you need to do at least 6,000, but as long as you're active, you're probably doing the right thing.