In fact, the idea of walking at least 10,000 steps a day for health goes back decades to a marketing campaign launched in Japan to promote a pedometer. And, in subsequent years, it was adopted in the US as a goal to promote good health. It's often the default setting on fitness trackers, but what's it really based on?
"The original basis of the number was not scientifically determined," says researcher I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women's Hospital.
She was curious to know how many steps you need to take a day to maintain good health and live a long life, so she and her colleagues designed a study that included about 17,000 older women. Their average age was 72. The women all agreed to clip on wearable devices to track their steps as they went about their day-to-day activities.
It turns out that women who took about 4,000 steps per day got a boost in longevity, compared with women who took fewer steps. "It was sort of surprising," Lee says.
In fact, women who took 4,400 steps per day, on average, were about 40 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period of about four years compared with women who took 2,700 steps. The findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Another surprise: The benefits of walking maxed out (maxed out:???????) at about 7,500 steps. In other words, women who walked more than 7,500 steps per day saw no additional boost in longevity.
Of course, the researchers point out, they would like to know much more about how walking may affect other health parameters such as quality of life and memory and cognitive function. It's possible that walking a greater number of steps each day could influence these outcomes.
So, if 10,000 steps has been feeling out of reach to you, it may be time reset those factory settings on your fitness tracker. Instead, try to hit at least 4,400 a day, along with daily activities that you enjoy. And stick to it.
每天需要走多少步才能保持健康
事实上，为了健康每天至少走一万步的想法可以追溯到几十年前日本一个计步器的营销活动。在随后的几年里，它成为一种促进健康的目标在美国被采纳。健身追踪器的默认设置也是一万步，但这背后真正的原理是什么呢？
布里格姆女子医院的研究员李依敏说：“这个数字的最初依据没有科学上的验证。”
她很想知道人们每天需要走多少步才能保持健康和长寿，所以她和同事们设计了一项有1.7万名老年女性参与的研究。她们平均72岁，这些女性都同意在日常活动中佩戴可穿戴设备，跟踪自己的步数。
结果表明，每天走大约4000步的女性比每天步数少于4000步的女性长寿。“这有点令人惊讶，”李依敏说。
事实上，与每天走2700步的女性相比，平均每天走4400步的女性在大约四年的随访期间死亡的可能性要低40%。该研究结果于上周三发表在《美国医学会内科杂志》上。
另一个意外是：步行的好处在7500步左右达到了极限。换句话说，每天步行超过7500步的女性寿命并没有进一步增加。
当然，研究人员指出，他们想知道更多关于步行如何影响其他健康参数的信息，如生活质量、记忆力和认知功能。每天走更多步可能会影响这些结果。
所以，如果你觉得1万步已经遥不可及，那么是时候在你的健身追踪器上重置这些出厂设置了。你可以试着每天至少走4400步，再做些你喜欢的日常活动，并坚持下去。