Steps to Better Health

Have you ever heard the notion that walking 10,000 steps a day leads to improved health outcomes? Well you may be surprised to learn that metric was developed for a marketing strategy in 1965 to sell a pedometer called Manpo-kei—translated to the “10,000 steps meter.”
 
Walking 10,000 steps is roughly equal to 5 miles and about 500 calories. But the original focus of tracking step counts was not to set exercise goals or lose weight. Rather, exercise scientists have studied step counts as a practical measure of sedentary behaviors.
 
Steps are a measure of how sedentary one is during the day outside of intentional exercise. In other words, step counts help to determine whether our Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) keep our body in motion or whether we sit for most of the day. Even if you intentionally exercise one hour a day, you are still considered sedentary if your steps are limited on average to about 2,700 steps a day. Likewise, if you jog 5 miles a day, i.e. 10,000 steps, but your step count outside that intentional activity is in the 2,700-step range, then you are still considered sedentary.
 
The Health Implications of an Increasingly Sedentary Society
 
Since the 1950s, rapid advances and changes in technology, communication, transportation and the workplace have evolved us into a society that spends much of the day sitting and less time being active. Being inactive, or taking fewer than 2,700 steps a day, has been linked to metabolic diseases, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, falls, sarcopenia, osteoporosis and cancer. It is now widely recognized that there is value in breaking up the time we spend sitting.
 
Science-Backed Goals with Encouraging Figures
 
Since the unofficial target of the 10,000-steps-a-day metric was an arbitrary number, what does science say is an ideal step count to counteract the effects of being sedentary?
 
Last summer, a meta-analysis of 31 studies found that 7,000 steps a day vs. 2,000 steps is a clinically meaningful goal.
 
Importantly, researchers found this can lead to a 47% lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality, 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease incidence, 37% lower risk of cancer mortality, 14% lower risk of diabetes, 38% lower risk of dementia, 22% lower risk of depressive symptoms, and a 28% lower risk of falls.
 
Finding Ways to Stay Active
 
After you have exercised with intention each day, what are some ways you can defy gravity and increase your ADL steps?
 
General Activities

• Stand/walk around when speaking on the phone
• Do your own housecleaning or gardening
• Walk the dog the long way home (fun fact: dog owners have lower BP, cholesterol and triglycerides!)
• Meeting a friend for coffee? Go for a stroll instead of sitting at a café.
• Get off the couch at each commercial break (Even better? Lose the remote and get up to change the channel or volume—if your TV set still has those physical functions!)
• Golfing? Skip the golfcart and walk the course
• Go shopping in person instead of online
• Plan some fun that involves walking such as visiting a museum, art gallery, flea market, street fair, etc.

 
Getting Around

• Get off the bus or subway one stop earlier and walk to your destination from there
• Walk errands
• Take the stairs down, elevator up
• Don’t use the drive-through window, park and walk inside
• Park as far away from the store door as possible

 
At Work (if you are working in an office setting):

• Use the printer/copier farthest from your desk
• Set a timer to go off every 20 minutes to stand up and walk around
• Get out of the office for at least 20 minutes each day to walk a few errands (this can be a great mental health break, too!)

 
And remember, what gets measured gets managed, so a small investment in a pedometer or fitness watch may be a worthwhile expense.
 
If your New Year’s resolution to start exercising with intention has fallen through, or if you already exercise with intention and want to stay motivated, Motivated Mondays, a member benefits through my partnership with Concierge Choice Physicians is about to embark on a two-month long resolution around exercise. If you aren’t already signed up, you may do so by clicking here.
 
And as always, I am here to help you achieve your wellness goals. Please reach out if you have any specific questions for me.