About those 10,000 steps

 We’re told we're supposed to take 10,000 steps a day for the sake of health and longevity. As I write this, it’s 2:00 in the afternoon. I spent the morning cleaning house. According to my Apple watch, I have taken 3,673 steps and walked 1.65 miles so far. I’ll be walking some more before bedtime, but of course I won’t come close to 10,000 steps. Must I walk more?

 Actually, that 10,000-step goal (about five miles) was not based on science. It began as a pedometer maker’s marketing ploy but has managed to stick in our consciousness as scientific truth. We now know that 10,000 is more than you need—but not a whole lot more. It looks like 7,500 steps is the new “sweet spot,” which still seems like a lot to me.  

 In one study, researchers found that women in their 70s who managed as few as 4,400 steps a day reduced their risk of premature death by 40 percent, compared to women completing 2,700 or fewer steps a day. For those women who took more than 5,000 steps a day, the risks for early death continued to drop, but plateaued at about 7,500 daily steps. In an experiment with 5000 middle-aged test subjects, researchers found that the people who took about 8,000 steps a day were half as likely to die prematurely from heart disease or other illness than those who accumulated only 4,000 steps a day.

 So, you only need to take 7,500 steps, not 10,000. If I want to hit that goal today, I’ll need to take another 3,500 steps before bedtime. It’s not going to happen. Besides, I’m a few weeks away from turning 85. What do they mean by longevity? How old am I supposed to get?

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