People who have a step goal know the frustration of not reaching their target and the silly lengths they will go to get those last few steps.
But, a new study has found that walking 8,000 steps once or twice per week is okay for the health.
According to the study, it can significantly reduce the risk of death over 10 years. So you don’t necessarily have to hit your step goal every single day to improve your health.
The study, published this week in JAMA Network Open, used data previously collected for the 2005 and 2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
The researchers included 3,101 participants for whom the surveys had accelerometer data. They tracked their daily step goals for one week, as well as mortality data for at least 10 years.
Their results showed that participants who walked at least 8,000 step goal (about 4 miles) one or two days per week were 15% less likely to die within 10 years.
The benefits however plateaued after walking at least 8,000 step goal three days per week. This means those who walked that much for four or more days didn’t see any further reductions in mortality risk.
The study’s inspiration was people who only have time to walk as exercise on the weekend. According to study co-author Dr. Kosuke Inoue, a chronic disease epidemiologist at Kyoto University in Japan, walking as an exercise has many benefits.
“Although recent studies have shown that more daily steps were associated with a steady decline in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk up to approximately 8,000 daily steps, he told TODAY.com
“We realized that evidence is lacking about the health benefits of walking intensively only a few days a week,” he explained.
