Move – Target of 7,000 Steps Daily for Major Health Benefits!

Historically, physical activity guidelines emphasised on time spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity as the main metric for recommendations. However, daily step counts offer an alternative: they are simple, easily understood, and can be tracked using pedometers, accelerometers, or modern activity trackers. Although step counts cannot capture all activities—such as cycling or wheelchair-based movements—they effectively reflect ambulatory activities across intensity, bouts, and domains, making them a promising supplementary or alternative measure of activity.

Despite growing interest on step counts as a metrics for physical activity, the evidence base for step-based recommendations was considered insufficient when the 2018 U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines and the 2020 WHO Guidelines were developed. Previous systematic reviews had focused mainly on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, showing promising inverse associations between higher step counts and better outcomes. However, these reviews overlooked many other important endpoints. This limited their value for broad public health recommendations.

A recent study published in the “Lancet Public Health” addressed the current gaps in literature and set two aims:  A primary aim of examining the relationship between average daily steps and a wide range of health outcomes—including mortality, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, mental health, cancer, and falls; and a secondary aim of investigating the relationship between cadence (a proxy for stepping rate or intensity) and health outcomes. This study found that although 10,000 steps/day may be achievable for the more active people, 7,000 steps/day results in clinically meaningful improvements in these health outcomes, making this a more realistic and achievable public health target (see Graphic).