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Study suggests you don't really need to walk 10,000 steps a day to live longer

By Mallika Marshall, MD

April 24, 2023 / 6:04 PM EDT / CBS Boston

BOSTON — A recent study says you don't really need to walk 10,000 steps a day to live longer.

Researchers in Japan and at UCLA looked at more than 3,000 adults and found that those who only took 8,000 steps or more one to two days a week were at lower risk for heart disease and death, but walking 8,000 steps more than three days a week didn't provide much more mortality benefit.

That's not to say taking 10,000 steps a day is bad for you but if you have trouble getting all of those daily steps in, achieving 8,000 a couple of times a week will still provide substantial health benefits.

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Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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