Your Step Goal May Be Built for a Younger Woman

You probably have a number in your head for how many steps you’re supposed to get in a day, and I’d bet it’s 10,000. That’s the one we all keep hearing, and a lot of women feel like they’ve failed whenever their watch shows 6,000 at the end of the day.

Here’s something most people don’t know. The 10,000 didn’t come from research. It goes back to a Japanese pedometer sold in the 1960s whose name translates loosely to “10,000-step meter.” It was a nice round marketing number, and it stuck.

So I want to walk you through what the research actually shows. In 2022, The Lancet Public Health published a large analysis that pooled 15 studies from around the world. Together they followed more than 47,000 adults for about seven years and tracked who died from any cause. 68% of the participants were women, and their average age was 65.

More steps meant lower risk, up to a point.
The least active group averaged about 3,500 steps a day. The group averaging about 5,800 steps had about 40% lower risk of death than that least active group, and the group averaging about 10,900 had about 53% lower risk. The biggest drop came from moving out of the least active group.

Where the benefit levels off
Amanda Paluch (a woman!), the lead researcher on the study, summed it up this way: “What we saw was this incremental reduction in risk as steps increase, until it levels off. And the leveling occurred at different step values for older versus younger adults.”

For adults 60 and older, the benefit leveled off around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day. For adults under 60, it leveled off around 8,000 to 10,000. Going past those ranges didn’t buy any additional protection in terms of living longer.

What this study can’t tell you
It’s observational, which means it shows an association and can’t prove that the steps themselves caused the lower risk. People who are in poor health tend to walk less, and that can make walking look more protective than it is.

What I’d do with this
If you’re somewhere around 7,000 steps a day, you are not falling short. You’re right in the range where the data shows the benefit. If you’re at 3,000, you don’t need to jump to 10,000. Add 1,000 a day for a few weeks, see that you can do it, and then build from there.

Note: Walking doesn’t replace strength training! Steps help keep your heart and metabolism healthy, but they won’t build the muscle and bone you need to stay strong and independent. You need both.

If you’ve got the walking covered and want the strength side handed to you — no guessing about which exercises, how many sets, or how heavy — check out Your First Strength Program. It’s a simple, physician-designed plan to help you build muscle and bone, starting right where you are.