For years we’ve all been told to chase 10,000 steps a day if we want to live longer and healthier lives.
But now, a groundbreaking new study has revealed you don’t need to hit that lofty target after all.
The research, led by the University of Sydney, found that walking just 7000 steps a day provides almost identical benefits to 10,000 – slashing your risk of death, dementia and heart disease.
The study is the largest and most comprehensive review ever done on step counts, analysing data from 57 studies conducted across more than 10 countries, including Australia, the US, UK and Japan, between 2014 and 2025.
Professor Melody Ding, from the School of Public Health and lead author of the study, said the findings offer a more realistic benchmark for millions of people who find 10,000 steps daunting.
‘Aiming for 7000 steps is a realistic goal based on our findings, which assessed health outcomes in a range of areas that hadn’t been looked at before,’ she said.
‘For those who cannot yet achieve 7000 steps a day, even small increases in step counts, such as increasing from 2000 to 4000 steps a day, are associated with significant health gains.’
The study found that walking 7000 steps a day slashed the risk of dying prematurely by 47 per cent, almost identical to the benefits of hitting those higher amounts.
It also revealed that dementia risk dropped by 38 per cent and type 2 diabetes risk fell by 22 percent.
‘For people who are already active, 10,000 steps a day is great. But beyond 7000 steps, the extra benefits for most of the health outcomes we looked at were modest,’ explained Dr Katherine Owen, co-author and chief analyst of the study.
The researchers are now working with the Australian government to help update national physical activity guidelines based on the new findings.
‘Our research helps to shift the focus from perfection to progress,’ said Professor Ding.
They also stressed that future studies would allow them to dig deeper into how step goals should vary depending on age, health status and location – something that could make daily movement targets more tailored and achievable for different groups of people.
‘We know daily step count is linked to living longer, but we now also have evidence that walking at least 7000 steps a day can significantly improve eight major health outcomes – including reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and depressive symptoms.’
A top personal trainer also agrees, crediting incredible health and fat-burning benefits of walking over intense gym sessions.
Rachael Attard, a sports nutritionist and personal trainer from the Gold Coast, Queensland, is vocal about her love of walking and recommends it to her clients as a secret fat-burning weapon.
‘Walking has all of the health benefits that I’m sure you’ve heard of, like improved cardiovascular fitness and endurance, reduced blood pressure and heart disease prevention,’ Rachael, 36, told the Daily Mail.
‘But one of my favourite things about walking is that it is the best exercise for slimming down legs and it burns a surprisingly high number of calories for a workout that’s relatively easy.’
The average person can burn around 300 calories on a one hour walk which is often all you need to put your body in a calorie deficit to lose weight.
‘You don’t need to be young or super fit, mums can do it with kids in a pram, there’s a low chance of injury, and you can do it when you’re not feeling motivated and it’s still doing amazing things for your body,’ Rachael added.
The science behind walking is simple: the ‘fat burning zone theory’ says that you shouldn’t push your body all the way to 100. Instead, you burn the most fat when working at 60 to 70 per cent of your maximum.
Fat burning takes place when carbs and fat are turned into energy called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
The body needs oxygen to convert fat into ATP and when you’re doing low to moderate-intensity exercise, you’re able to breathe more easily so your body gets more oxygen than when you’re doing high intensity training.
‘The most efficient thing your body can do during lower and moderate forms of exercise is to turn to your stored fat into energy,’ Rachael said.
‘So according to the fat burning theory, you should do long low-intensity exercises in order to use up fat stores and burn enough calories to see weight loss.’
