“A lot of early studies adopted that 10,000 steps message, and it’s not a bad thing: doing more steps rather than doing less is always going to be recommended,” Dr Aguiar says. “But if you want to be accurate with what the science is showing, less than that is adequate.”

Slowly increase this goal over time until you reach the Goldilocks spot of 8,000 steps per day or more, and enjoy walking your way to plenty of health benefits in the process.

Meanwhile a 2023 meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology established a lower limit of 3,867 steps per day, claiming this figure was needed to see a “significant” decrease in all-cause mortality.

How many steps should you do per day?

We now know that walking roughly 8,000 steps a day is linked to a whole host of health benefits and for many people, it’s probably a more reasonable goal.

Recent research from the University of Granada supports the newer target, with an article from the institution claiming it provided “the first scientific... See more

“And in terms of meeting the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) physical activity guidelines of about 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, those numbers translate to about 7,000-8,000 steps per day. There’s a lot of sense to it, and it’s aligning quite well with what the... See more

“If you want optimal benefits for the time you put in, you have most of the gain already if you’ve done 8,000 – then there are marginal or incremental gains beyond this point,” explains Dr Aguiar.