Do you really have to walk 10,000 steps a day to be healthy?

It may be one of your resolutions back to school: walk 10,000 steps every day to be healthy. The goal is often espoused, including by the World Health Organization (WHO) in a 2008 guideline booklet since removed. In truth, this course was not imagined by scientists.

“These 10,000 steps date from the Olympic Games in Japan in 1965. There is a manufacturer of pedometers that had the idea of ​​giving this daily figure as a reference. This has been taken up very regularly, even by the WHO”, summarizes Dr. Alain Ducardonnet , BFMTV health adviser.

Since these Olympic Games, various experts have investigated this dogma. A study published by Harvard Medical School in May 2019 marks a different course. The researchers looked at the link between mortality and the number of steps. To do this, they followed 16,741 healthy American women, aged 72 on average. Study result:

“As the number of steps per day is increased, death rates gradually decrease before stabilizing at around 7,500 steps per day.”

“Tonic walk at the limit of shortness of breath”

More recently, a meta-analysis combining data from 15 studies has identified a slightly different objective. The postulate is the same, daily activity is associated with “a progressively lower risk of all-cause mortality.” The benefits are multiple, both for the cardiovascular system and for mental health.

But the analysis leads to another installment. Thus, it would be necessary to oscillate between 8,000 and 10,000 daily strides before the age of 60, and between 6,000 and 8,000 after this age. Doing more would not have shown additional long-term effects.

You also have to take into account the intensity of this walk. “You have to practice a tonic walk, be on the verge of difficulty breathing,” specifies Dr. Ducardonnet.

Whether it’s walking or engaging in more vigorous physical activity, the French don’t move enough. As the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) warned in 2022, “95% of the adult population is at risk of deteriorating health due to lack of physical activity or spending too much time sitting down.”

To make it easier to monitor your walking practice or your physical activity, there are technological solutions. Connected watches or smartphone apps can be used to follow sports practice in real time throughout the day.