Walking 10,000 steps a day is a great goal to set, but there's really a lot more to it than that
Photo: SuperStock/Getty Images If you pluck someone off the street, whether in New York or Wichita or Seattle or Sacramento, and ask them how many steps people should aim for per day in order to get enough physical activity, they’ll probably tell you 10,000. In an age in which pedometers are cheaper, more accurate, and more feature-rich than ever, this number has taken on almost mythical proportions — a lofty-sounding goal that separates the active-lifestyle haves from the slothful have-nots.
The problem, which barely needs stating, is that circa-1964 Japan was markedly different from the circa-2015 U.S.“By all accounts, life in Japan in the 1960s was less calorie rich, less animal fat, and much less bound up in cars,” said Bestor. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows that the average per-capita food supply for Japanese people in 1964 was 2,632 calories, while the average for Americans in 2011 was 3,639.
Her work focuses on the most sedentary slice of the population , and there, it can be a challenge to get people to take 5,000 steps, let alone 10,000. But moving from 2,500 steps a day, say, to 5,000, is a small but important victory for people who don’t get any exercise, and can have important health ramifications. “We know that you get the biggest bang for your buck by just moving from a sedentary state up a little bit,” she said.
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