B2 reading: Do we really need 10,000 steps?

1 Ten thousand steps a day has become one of the best-known health targets in the world. Fitness trackers celebrate it with a little animation, and office colleagues compare their totals over coffee. Yet the number did not come from a medical study. It is usually traced back to a marketing campaign for a Japanese pedometer in the 1960s, whose name roughly translated as "ten-thousand-step meter". The figure was round, memorable and ambitious, which made it perfect for advertising.

2 In recent years, researchers have tried to find out how many steps people actually need. The picture that has emerged is encouraging, especially for those who find ten thousand an unrealistic goal. Several large studies, which followed thousands of adults over many years, found that the risk of early death fell steadily as daily steps increased from a low starting point, but that the benefits began to level off at somewhere around seven or eight thousand steps for many people. For older adults, the point at which extra steps made little further difference appeared to be lower still.

3 This does not mean that walking more is pointless. People who walk ten or twelve thousand steps may gain other benefits, such as better fitness or weight control, and for many the habit is enjoyable in itself. But the research does suggest that the greatest gains come from moving from very little activity to a moderate amount. Someone who currently takes two thousand steps a day and increases that to five thousand is likely to benefit far more than a keen walker who goes from eleven thousand to fourteen.

4 The speed of walking seems to matter too, although the evidence here is less clear. Some studies suggest that walking briskly, at a pace where talking becomes slightly harder, brings additional benefits for the heart. Others have found that the total number of steps matters more than how fast they are taken.

5 Perhaps the most useful lesson is that rigid targets can be counterproductive. People who fail to reach an ambitious goal day after day may feel discouraged and give up entirely. Health experts increasingly recommend setting a personal target based on your current level, then raising it gradually. Taking the stairs, getting off the bus a stop early, or making a phone call while walking around the block can add a surprising number of steps without the need to find extra time.

6 Ten thousand steps, then, is not a magic number. It is a reasonable goal for some people and an unnecessary pressure for others. What matters most is not hitting a particular figure but simply moving more than you did before.