How many steps to take daily for longevity
If you want to know the maximum effective dose of walking for longevity, here's the answer
You've probably heard that you should walk 10,000 steps a day for health. While the number isn't a bad amount to aim for, it was based on the name Manpo-kei ("10,000 steps meter"), a Japanese pedometer that the company Yamasa released in time for the Olympic Games 1964.
A meta-analysis published in the "European Journal of Preventive Cardiology" looked at the results of 17 cohort studies and found that walking 4,000 steps a day is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, and walking 2,300 steps a day is associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular mortality. [1]
So walking 2,300 steps is better than a sedentary lifestyle, but the study also confirmed that the more you walk, the better your health outcome.
Another study found that walking 12,000 steps a day was associated with 65 percent lower all-cause mortality, compared to those only getting 4,000 steps a day. 8,000 steps a day appeared to cut the risk of dying over the subsequent decade in half. [2]
Maximizing longevity through walking
The maximum longevity effect that can be attained through walking appears to be at around 13,500 steps or walking 90 minutes a day.
One study found that walking only 15 minutes a day may reduce mortality risk by 15 percent. Every additional 15 minutes of moderate exercise, like walking, seems to reduce all-cause mortality rates by 4% until 100 minutes a day, "after which additional exercise gave no additional health benefit." [3]
However, if we go back to the first study we mentioned, it looked at the association of steps per day and mortality risk for up to 20,000 steps a day.
You can see that there's a slight decrease in risk if you take 20,000 steps a day compared to the aforementioned 13,500 steps, but if you apply the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, I'd argue that you get 80% percent of the results if you aim for 13,500 steps a day and that walking 20,000 steps a day only moves the needle a little bit.
From my personal experience, I manage to get in 14,000 steps per day easily, and I actually feel bad if I don't do it. But when I take the time and walk 20,000 steps per day, I feel amazing and also tend to sleep better.
Interestingly, one study looked at Nonagenarians, people in their 90s in Sardinia, a so-called "blue zone" that regularly "produces" centenarians, and found that they average about 12,000 steps a day just living their lives. [4]
What about jogging?
We'll look at jogging in the next article, so stay tuned, feel free to subscribe, and thank you for reading.
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