Aug 07, 2025 12:00:00

Research shows that walking less than 10,000 steps a day reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and death, and that walking faster is also effective

It is often said that the ideal goal for physical activity is to walk

10,000 steps a day , but 10,000 steps is equivalent to 100 minutes of walking at 4 km/h (70 m/min) with a stride length of 70 cm. While walking for 100 minutes a day may seem like a difficult goal to achieve, several studies have shown that even shorter periods of walking can potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and death.

Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis - The Lancet Public Health
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(25)00164-1/fulltext

Prospective associations of daily step count and stepping intensity with overall and type-specific major adverse cardiovascular events in people with hypertension
https://apps.crossref.org/pendingpub/pendingpub.html?doi=10.1093%2Feurjpc%2Fzwaf441

Daily Walking and Mortality in Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse US Adults - American Journal of Preventive Medicine
https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(25)00230-2/fulltext

Ding Ding and his colleagues at the University of Sydney reviewed 31 studies involving more than 160,000 adults to analyze the effects of walking fewer than 10,000 steps per day.

The results showed that, compared with a baseline of 2,000 steps per day, health risks generally decreased with each additional 1,000 steps, with many health benefits maximizing at 7,000 steps.

For example, compared with 2,000 steps per day, 7,000 steps reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by 47%, heart disease by 25%, cancer by 6%, type 2 diabetes by 14%, dementia by 38%, falls by 28%, and depression by 22%. Many of these benefits were maximized at 7,000 steps, with the only exception being heart disease risk, which continued to improve even when taking more than 7,000 steps.

In addition, the study found that walking only 4,000 steps per day reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by up to 36% compared with walking 2,000 steps per day, suggesting that even 2,000 steps per day can provide health benefits for people who do not normally exercise.

Another

study conducted by Sonia Cheng and colleagues at the University of Sydney found that people with high blood pressure also benefit from fewer steps. According to Cheng and colleagues, starting from a baseline of 2,300 steps per day, every 1,000 additional steps reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by 17%, heart failure by 22%, heart attack by 9%, and stroke by 24%. This effect continued up to 10,000 steps per day. Even in people without high blood pressure, every 1,000 additional steps from 2,300 per day reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20.2%, heart failure by 23.2%, heart attack by 17.9%, and stroke by 24.6%.

Other studies have found that even fewer steps, if taken faster, may be beneficial.

Lili Liu and colleagues from Vanderbilt University analyzed the physical activity of 79,856 adults living in 12 US states, examining their walking speed, distance, and ultimate cause of death.

The results showed that people who walked briskly (including climbing stairs) for at least 15 minutes each day, rather than simply commuting, had a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality, and a significantly lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease in particular, compared with people who did not walk briskly.

According to Liu and colleagues, brisk walking for about 15 minutes a day can reduce the risk of all-cause mortality by about 20%, but walking for too long has no significant effect. People who walked for more than three hours a day, not just briskly, for example, for commuting, walking their dog, or light walking, saw only a 4% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality.

'Brisk walking clearly improves cardiac efficiency, leading to improved overall cardiovascular health, and it also helps control weight and body composition, reducing other associated risks such as obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia,' Liu and colleagues wrote.