Movement

Do You Really Have To Walk 10,000 Steps A Day?

For over a decade now we have been told to walk “10,000 steps every day” to keep ourselves healthy. Is it really necessary? That’s up for a debate. Here, let us analyse all the perspectives of walking every day and decide what’s best for you.

By Hima

07 Apr 2022

Lately, have you been feeling like you need to prioritise health? If your idea of healthy living is walking “10,000 steps a day”, then you have come to the right place. “10,000 steps” a day seems ideal, does it not? Walking is one of the best-known ways to reduce stress and boost your health. Whether you are leisurely taking a stroll through your neighborhood or power walking in the park, it is an excellent way to keep your body active. A recent study in Research Gate, 2021, concludes that “10,000 steps per day” for a week is equivalent to 150 minutes of hardcore workout.

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Moreover, walking is a practical and fun way to add a change in our routine clinging to sedentary life. Don’t worry if you aren’t feeling motivated enough? Here is a list of points that will push you out of the lethargic phase and get you walking.

1. A person walking “10,000 steps” per day will have a healthier heart than a person who does not walk, a gist of John P Thyfault, PhD: Walking helps in improving a person’s aerobic capacity, a standard to access a person’s mortality risk. A person with optimum aerobic capacity will be able to pump the blood from the heart in a smooth and riskless manner, validates Ning An and Jing Chou in their paper in Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2022.

2. Walking a few miles every day helps you burn more calories: the fate of calories consumed by someone who walks “10,000 steps” a day and by someone who isn’t active is not the same. Studies prove that our body stores less body fat and burns it out when we are habitually active.

3. Taking a stroll around your neighbourhood will help you manage your blood sugar: People with an inactive lifestyle will see a surge in their glucose and insulin response, an indicator of disease and cardiovascular risk. Roni Sianturi and Akhmad earlier this year concluded that walking can reduce blood glucose levels in their paper in the UNIMUS journal.

4. Children who take around 10,000 steps per day are at a lower risk of hypertension and cardiometabolic risks, found a study by Aneta Weres in Scientific Reports, 2022, that assessed the relation between -”10,000 steps” and blood pressure.

It does seem like a cakewalk, reading about it, I mean. But achieving “10,000 steps” per day is nothing less than walking through fire with our hectic work schedule. Initially, the “10,000 steps” per day began as an endorsing strategy that is portrayed to promote a healthy lifestyle. But as a tag-along comes the real advertisement of fancy gadgets. Even though many studies support walking as physical activity, the standard of “10,000 steps” was never set.

So, what’s the point you ask? The key step towards healthy living is keeping your body active. It is important that you keep up with the trend of walking every day. So, don’t worry if you fall short of a number. All that matters is your effort and enthusiasm toward healthy living.