How many steps should you do daily?

Have you ever been wondering how many steps should you do daily? Read along to find out! Walking is an effective form of low-impact exercise that can help people improve or maintain their physical fitness.

One study from 2011 found that healthy adults can make between 4,000 and 18,000 steps/day and that 10,000 steps/day is a reasonable target for healthy adults. If you want to compare your daily steps to an activity level, consider the following:

• Inactive – less than 5,000 steps per day
• Average – from 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day
• Very active – more than 12,500 steps per day.

How many steps for … ?

For general health, you should take 10,000 steps per day. For most people, it is around 8 kilometres or 5 miles. For example in the United States, most people take just 3,000 or 4,000 steps. It is considered to be sedentary which means they are not getting as many steps as they should benefit their health.

Walking has a lot of advantages. It prevents certain health conditions, such as obesity, osteoporosis, and age-related memory loss. It can also improve:

• muscle strength
• range of motion
• blood flow
• flexibility
• balance, which can help prevent falls
• joint stiffness
• mood and sleep
• breathing.

If you want to lose a bit of your weight you should be able to aim for 10,000 steps per day. There are a lot of factors which affect the exact number of steps such as age, gender and diet but one study found that getting 15,000 steps per day is correlated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome. If the goal of 15,000 steps per day is difficult for you, getting 10,000 steps per day will help you lose weight and improve your mood.

If you want to improve your fitness level, firstly, you should find out how many steps you are getting daily now. To see how many steps you are taking we recommend you purchase a smartwatch which counts steps. Then set a goal of 500 to 1,000 steps more than your current average. You can again increase it after a week or two weeks (as you feel comfortable).

If your current activity level is under 5,000 steps per day, it is recommended to start slightly increasing steps to 250 to 500 steps per day. In the first week focus on increasing your step count by 250 steps per day. When you feel comfortable you can add 500 steps until you reach 10,000 steps per day. Then you can decide if you stay on this level or if you want to keep adding steps each day. Personal trainers recommend to challenge yourself for example running for 15 seconds and walking for 1 minute or running for 30 seconds and walking for 2 minutes.

How to get more steps?

It can be crucial for people who don’t have a lot of time, work is mostly sedentary or their face other barriers. However, if someone wants to walk more and reach more steps they will always find a way how to do it. There are plenty of ways how to increase steps in daily life, such as:

• take stairs instead of using elevators or escalators,
• go for walk during lunch break,
• use restroom or meeting room which is further away from you within an office,
• try new ways to get more steps, such as hiking, dancing,
• park your car further away than usual from stores,
• walk to or from work, if possible.

One research shows that people who keep track of their daily step count, walk an average of 2,500 steps more than people who do not.

Maybe you are asking how to stay motivated. We know it can be really difficult sometimes but we recommend replacing motivation with discipline. It also requires a commitment from you to put your health first.

The best way how to track your daily steps is to get a smartwatch which has this function. It will help you to track steps, keep you motivated and be a healthier person. Check out our smartwatches: