Perhaps you’ve seen a lot of articles pushing for 10,000 steps a day to gain health and fitness benefits, but is this the minimum requirement?
What if you can’t figure out a way to accumulate 10,000 steps every single day?
A study of this determined that the daily step total should be lowered to 6,000.
The report is in the November 2012 Menopause, and states that at least 6,000 steps a day will contribute to better health, though the study focused on middle-aged and older women rather than the general population.
Life as a couch potato is harmful to the body, and the more that you move in daily life, the healthier and fitter you’ll be.
If you’re sedentary and want to be healthier, start by wearing a pedometer to attain 6,000 steps a day.
Though relying ONLY on step totals is not the best approach to health and fitness, it IS a great way to get launched towards a fitter and healthier lifestyle.
The 6,000 steps a day is also highly applicable to those folks who are indeed committed to ongoing strenuous exercise — but for the remainder of the day are very sedentary, spending hours and hours at the computer or watching TV.
These individuals should tally daily step totals with a pedometer outside of their structured exercise sessions.
The Study
It involved 292 women (45 to 72) who wore pedometers.
The cutoff point for daily step totals was 6,000: Women who took fewer than 6,000 steps a day were deemed inactive.
All the women had health checks that included blood sugar, waist/hip measurement and cholesterol profile.
The women whose pedometers recorded over 6,000 steps a day were far less likely to be obese or have diabetes or metabolic syndrome, when compared to the inactive women.
Whether or not they’d gone through menopause or had hormone therapy did not influence results.
Tips on Accumulating 6,000 Steps Per Day
I have a treadmill desk and know firsthand how valuable this tool is for accumulating steps throughout the day.
For instance, when it’s time to peruse news sites for the latest stories, you can do this while walking slowly on the treadmill desk.
You can also pace about the house during TV commercials if you watch shows in real time.
If you strength train at a gym, walk around between sets instead of sitting on the equipment.
If you think someone might take the equipment while you’re walking away from it, then confine your steps to close-by.
