How many steps a day you need depends on your age, and it's fewer than the famous 10,000. In a large 2022 meta-analysis00302-9), the risk of dying from any cause kept falling with every extra thousand steps until about 6,000–8,000 steps a day for people over 60 and 8,000–10,000 for people under 60. After that the curve mostly flattens out.
The biggest gap in risk sits between the least active people and the next group up, so even one or two thousand steps on top of what you do now already shows up in the data.
Where 10,000 steps came from
Everyone knows the number 10,000, and most people treat it as the healthy amount. Yet the authors of that same meta-analysis00302-9) open their paper by pointing out that 10,000 steps is widely promoted with little evidence behind it. A round number is easy to remember and easy to put on a step counter. It's a target, not the line where health begins.
The good news: if you don't reach 10,000, you aren't falling short. For a lot of people 7,000–8,000 already gets them nearly all the benefit the studies can see.
How many steps a day is healthy: what the studies found
Two big reviews answer the question with different sets of data and land in a similar place.
The first is Paluch AE et al., The Lancet Public Health, 2022. It pooled 15 cohorts, 47,471 adults in total, followed for about 7 years on average. People were split into four groups by steps: on average 3,553, 5,801, 7,842 and 10,901 a day. Compared with the least active group, the risk of death from any cause was 40% lower in the second group, 45% lower in the third and 53% lower in the fourth. Risk kept dropping as steps went up, then levelled off: at roughly 6,000–8,000 steps a day for people 60 and over, and 8,000–10,000 for those under 60.
The second is Banach M et al., European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2023. It covers 17 cohorts and 226,889 people. Every extra 1,000 steps a day was linked to a 15% lower risk of death from any cause, and every extra 500 steps to a 7% lower risk of death from heart and blood vessel disease. In this data the benefit started at around 3,900 steps a day, and at around 2,300 for heart and blood vessels.
How many steps a day for women
Neither meta-analysis, Paluch00302-9) or Banach, gives a separate number for women: the thresholds are for adults in general, with men and women in the same samples. So the target is the same — roughly 8,000–10,000 steps before 60 and 6,000–8,000 after.
If you're at 3,000–4,000 now, don't jump straight to eight. Add a thousand and hold that level for a week or two. In the Banach data, even one extra thousand is already linked to noticeably lower risk.
How many steps a day for women and men over 60
For people over 60, the risk in the Paluch meta-analysis00302-9) stopped falling noticeably at about 6,000–8,000 steps a day. So at 60 or 70 there's no need to chase 10,000: six to eight thousand already gets you nearly everything the data shows.
The pace doesn't have to be athletic either. In the same study, once total steps were taken into account, the link between risk and fast walking became much weaker. What matters most is how many steps you rack up in a day, and ordinary walking while you run errands counts.
How many steps a day to lose weight
The honest answer here is less exciting. Weight comes off with a calorie deficit, and steps are only one part of it. Here's roughly how much steps burn on top of what your body would burn at rest anyway.
| Steps | Km | Minutes | 60 kg | 70 kg | 80 kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,000 | 2.8 | 35 | 98 | 115 | 131 |
| 6,000 | 4.2 | 53 | 147 | 172 | 196 |
| 8,000 | 5.6 | 70 | 196 | 229 | 262 |
| 10,000 | 7.1 | 88 | 246 | 287 | 327 |
| 12,000 | 8.5 | 105 | 295 | 344 | 393 |
Calories above rest at an average pace on flat ground: 114 steps a minute and 3 mph (CADENCE-Adults, 2019), 3.8 METs (2024 Compendium of Physical Activities). Worked out with the walking calorie calculator.
Where the numbers come from. An ordinary walk at 2.8-3.4 mph is 3.8 METs in the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities; one MET is roughly 1 kcal per kilo of body weight per hour, and we subtract the one MET your body burns sitting still anyway. The pace of 114 steps a minute at 3 mph comes from Tudor-Locke C et al., International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2019, which also found that around 100 steps a minute is where walking becomes moderate exercise for adults aged 21-40. Kilometres come from the speed, not from a stride length. You can plug in your own weight, time and pace in the calories burned walking calculator.
For someone who weighs 70 kg, 10,000 steps is about 290 kcal above rest. That's real, but one hefty snack can cancel it out. So steps help a lot, they just can't outwalk overeating. What works is the pair: a moderate deficit in what you eat plus steps every day. To see what that means in calories for you, use the calorie deficit calculator.
If you're dieting, already walking, and the scale won't move, the cause is usually food rather than walking. More on that in not losing weight on a calorie deficit.
How to add steps without forcing it
You don't need a separate "walk for the steps" slot. It's easier to fold them into your day:
- get off one stop early or park further away;
- take phone calls on the move;
- walk for ten minutes after lunch instead of sitting straight back down;
- take the stairs for at least a couple of floors;
- set up an evening walk with someone, so it's harder to skip.
Start by checking how many steps you get now: your phone usually counts them already. Take your average for a week and add a thousand. Once that feels normal, add another.
When to talk to a doctor first
Walking is one of the safest kinds of exercise, but not for everyone and not in any amount. If you have heart disease, get badly out of breath, have painful joints or are pregnant, ask your doctor how much is right for you. This article isn't medical advice: it sums up what large studies show, not what you personally should do.
Reminders
Water and weight