Research Shows Ideal Daily Step Count to Counteract Sitting

New Research on Daily Step Counts and Health Risks

You’ve likely come across the advice that adults should target around 10,000 steps each day. It’s a straightforward guideline, yet it doesn’t really take into account the diverse lifestyles and physical conditions of individuals.

In a recent study conducted in 2024, researchers from around the world discovered that even those with very sedentary habits could mitigate some negative effects of prolonged sitting by simply adding more movement to their daily routine.

Sedentary living is becoming increasingly widespread, leading to an elevated risk of serious health conditions, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, diabetes, and even reduced life expectancy. The data portrays a grim picture.

However, there’s some good news: individuals who take more steps or walk at a brisk pace tend to have a decreased risk of these health issues. But the question remained—could simply increasing daily steps help those who are mostly inactive?

In the study, results indicated that the more steps participants took, regardless of their overall inactivity, the lower their risk of CVD and early death became. So, if you work in an office, it turns out there’s a glimmer of hope. But researchers stress that it’s still crucial to minimize sedentary time whenever possible.

Matthew Ahmadi, a population health scientist from the University of Sydney, noted that this research doesn’t offer a free pass for people who sit for extended periods. “Nevertheless,” he added, “the findings send a significant public health message that all movement counts, and one can counteract the adverse health implications of unavoidable sitting with increased daily steps.”

Ahmadi and his team analyzed data from over 72,000 volunteers in the UK Biobank, which tracks participants’ health over time. Each volunteer contributed around 6.9 years of health data while wearing wrist accelerometers for a week to measure their activity and sitting times.

On average, participants spent about 10.6 hours a day being sedentary, meaning those who exceeded that amount were classified as having ‘high sedentary time.’ The study focused on generally healthy individuals, excluding anyone whose initial health could have skewed the findings.

The researchers found that achieving between 9,000 and 10,000 steps daily was ideal for those living mostly sedentary lifestyles. This amount of walking led to a 21 percent reduction in CVD risk and a 39 percent decrease in mortality risk.

Interestingly, regardless of how little they moved, half of the health benefits appeared to kick in at around 4,000 to 4,500 steps a day.

Ahmadi and colleagues concluded that stepping beyond 2,200 steps daily was associated with lower mortality rates and reduced CVD risk, regardless of the participants’ sedentary status.