The famous 10,000-step target began as a marketing slogan, not a medical recommendation. A GP and longevity expert reveals how many steps you actually need to boost your health, why walking pace matters and how to reap the benefits even if you spend most of the day sitting down.
There’s a decent chance your watch fired off a little celebration the last time you hit 10,000 steps, and an equally decent chance you felt like a slacker on the days you didn’t. The latest science, however, says you can cut yourself some slack. A 2025 meta-analysis in The Lancet Public Health pooled data from more than 160,000 adults and found that 7,000 steps a day was linked to a 47% lower risk of death from any cause compared with 2,000 steps. Pushing on to 10,000 added only a small extra benefit for most outcomes, while even 4,000 steps a day was associated with a 36% lower mortality risk.
According to Dr Angela Rai, GP and longevity expert at The London General Practice, the five-figure target has surprisingly little to do with medicine.
A number born in a sales pitch
“The 10,000-step target originated in Japan in 1965, when a pedometer called the Manpo-kei, meaning ‘10,000-step metre’, was marketed to encourage people to walk more,” she explains. “It was not a threshold established by a clinical trial.” That doesn’t make the target useless, however, as Dr Rai thinks it can still nudge you to move more, as long as you don’t treat it as gospel. “The goal is really to find movement habits that are practical and sustainable for an individual.”
Where the real gains sit
Health benefits start to level off at around 5,000 to 7,000 steps a day, but Dr Rai says your starting point matters far more than any finish line. If you spend most of the day sat down, adding 2,000 to 4,000 steps is a valuable first move. “Moving to 4,000-7,000 has substantial health benefits and 7,000-10,000 steps is a reasonable goal for someone who is able and enjoys the activity,” she says.
Your age changes the maths
Older men may hit their sweet spot sooner. Dr Rai highlights a 2022 meta-analysis in The Lancet Public Health, which found mortality risk levelled off at around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day in adults over 60, compared with 8,000 to 10,000 in younger adults. The step count is only part of the story, though. “What’s important to establish is that it’s not just the number of steps but also functional capacity, maintaining muscle and bone strength, balance, mobility and independence,” she says. Don’t hang up the dumbbells just because you’ve bought a step tracker.
Pick up the pace
A slow amble round the supermarket and a march to catch your train don’t do the same job. “Pace does have an impact and walking briskly increases the cardiovascular demand on the body,” says Dr Rai. Over time, that can improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, blood pressure regulation and how well your body uses oxygen. UK Biobank research on more than 78,000 adults supports this, linking a faster stepping rate to a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, and early death, in addition to the benefits of total step count. If you can still talk but would struggle to sing, for example, you’ve found a brisk pace.
One long walk or lots of little ones?
Both have their place, it turns out. A 20- to 40-minute walk lets you hold a moderate intensity long enough to train your cardiovascular system, while shorter walks spread through the day make it easier to rack up steps and break up long spells of sitting. “The main thing is to find a pattern you can sustain,” says Dr Rai. “If one longer walk fits your life better, that’s valuable. If several short walks are more realistic, they count too.”
You can’t walk off a day at your desk
A big Sunday hike won’t fully cancel out five days of eight hours glued to your office chair, because sitting and walking affect the body differently. Dr Rai recommends standing, stretching or moving regularly through the working day to protect your muscles and your spine in particular. “Even small breaks of movement, stretching, and breathing help,” she says. Filling your water bottle at the kitchen on the far side of the office, or taking 30 minutes to stroll on lunch are two perfectly respectable starting points.
How to build up from a low base
If you’re on around 3,000 steps a day, resist the urge to leap straight to 10,000. Build up gradually and take any existing health conditions into account. Dr Rai says anyone who is frail, has significant joint pain, has a history of falls or has a heart or lung condition may need a slower progression or individual advice. If walking ever causes chest pain, faintness or unusual breathlessness, stop and speak to a doctor. “A modest improvement maintained for years is more valuable than an ambitious target abandoned after a short while,” she says.
