How many steps a day do you need? I-Min Lee on 10,000

No research gives one number everyone needs. In studies that tracked people for years, more daily steps went with better long-term health outcomes up to a point, and that point sat below 10,000: about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for adults 60 and over, and 8,000 to 10,000 for adults under 60. Steps are optional. If you like counting, start from your own usual number and add a little at a time.

Lee's interest started at work, with a step competition run by Lee's employer. Lee led a team of mostly middle-aged and older women whose trackers came set to a default goal of 10,000 (TEDxBoston, 0:18 to 1:15). The team never won a week. One teammate said that at their age the goal was impossible. That got Lee asking who came up with the number, and what data supported it.

The answer, as Lee told the TEDx audience: "it turns out that this number first originated in Japan in the mid 1960s." A company was selling the first commercial pedometer and needed a catchy name. "Manpo in Japanese means 10,000 steps" (1:20 to 1:44). Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, then helped test the number with real data. This article follows that work, with Daniel Lieberman, a Harvard evolutionary biologist, from The Diary of a CEO. The seven-step grouping is ours.

Start with what the number is, and what it isn't

1. Know where 10,000 came from

Lieberman tells the same origin story: a pedometer launched around the Tokyo Olympics, a name picked because it sounded good. "There was no science behind it," Lieberman says (10:27 to 11:23 on YouTube). Then a fair addition: "it turns out it's pretty good." So 10,000 is a reasonable target for some people, and it was never the line between healthy and not.

Official guidance agrees. The US physical activity guidelines say that popular advice such as 10,000 steps a day "is not a guideline per se, but a way people may choose to meet the key guidelines" (US guidelines, 2018). The guidelines set minutes of activity, plus strength on two days a week, not a step count. The authors of a 2022 pooled study put it plainly: "There are currently no evidence-based public health guidelines recommending the number of steps per day for health benefits" (Paluch et al., 2022).

2. Know what the step studies measured

Lee's own test came from the Women's Health Study. Between 2011 and 2015, 16,741 US women with an average age of 72 wore a research-grade step counter for a week, and the researchers followed them for an average of 4.3 years. Women who took about 4,400 steps a day had better long-term health outcomes than the least active women, at about 2,700. The link kept growing with more steps and then leveled off at about 7,500. How fast the women stepped wasn't clearly linked to anything once total steps were counted (Lee et al., 2019).

Other teams then ran the same kind of study in men and in younger people. A 2022 analysis pooled 15 studies with 47,471 adults from the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and elsewhere, followed for a median of 7.1 years. More steps went with better long-term health outcomes, leveling off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for adults 60 and over and about 8,000 to 10,000 for adults under 60 (Paluch et al., 2022). A 2025 review of 57 studies from 35 groups of people found the gains on several outcomes started to level off at around 5,000 to 7,000 a day. Its authors wrote that 10,000 "can still be a viable target for those who are more active," while 7,000 "might be a more realistic and achievable target for some" (Ding et al., 2025).

Three limits matter. Most of this research tracked a narrow set of long-term health outcomes, and Lee notes in the talk that the field is young, so much less is known yet about other conditions (6:01 to 6:14). The studies observed people and didn't assign steps, so they show a link and can't prove that steps did the work: people who are unwell often walk less to begin with, and the Paluch authors say plainly that "causal inferences cannot be made." And the review authors flag few studies for most outcomes and no breakdown by age.

Use steps if numbers help you

3. Count your own usual day first

The useful number is your own. The US guidelines suggest counting the steps on several ordinary days with no walks for exercise. In the studies they describe, a typical starting point was about 5,000 a day. Your phone may already count them: Apple's Health app counts steps automatically on an iPhone (Apple), and on Android, Google Fit can use the phone's sensors (Google).

Here's what that looks like in practice. Look at last week in your phone's health app, skip any day with a long walk, and take a rough average of the rest. That's your usual.

4. Turn a time goal into steps

The guidelines' method starts with minutes and then converts them to steps. Their worked example: count the steps in a 10-minute walk, say 1,000. A 20-minute walk is then about 2,000. Add that to a usual 5,000 and the day's goal is 7,000. Then build up week by week, at your own pace: the guidelines suggest some people starting at 5,000 can add 500 steps a day each week, and people who are less fit should add fewer.

These are the guidelines' example numbers, so use your own. Walk at a pace where you can talk but not sing, which the NHS uses as its test for moderate effort (NHS). Stop if anything hurts or you feel unwell. If you notice new symptoms as you do more, talk to a doctor.

Some people should check with a doctor before stepping up: anyone with chest pain, pressure or fainting when active; a pounding, skipping or racing heart, dizziness or unusual breathlessness when active; a heart, kidney or metabolic condition; another long-term condition or symptoms they're unsure about; a doctor's advice to limit activity; or recent surgery, a heart event, an injury or illness. Check with a doctor first, then come back to your plan.

5. Add steps in small pieces

You don't need one long walk. Every activity that adds steps counts toward the day, from taking the stairs to running errands on foot or standing up and moving during the workday, the US guidelines note. Lee's suggestions in a Harvard Health interview are the everyday kind: take the stairs, park at the first empty space, get off the bus a stop early, break chores into more than one trip. "Those little things collectively add up," Lee said. For short bursts of activity and whether they count, see do short workouts count.

Or count something else

6. Count sessions if numbers feel like pressure

Some people find a daily number motivating. Others feel behind by lunchtime. If that's you, skip steps and count the sessions in your week; the guidelines are built on minutes and strength days, and our pillar guide on how to make exercise a habit shows how to count a week.

A tracker isn't required either. In a trial with 800 full-time employees in Singapore, some given activity trackers, by month 12 only about one in ten of those with a tracker were still wearing it (Finkelstein et al., 2016). Counting works for as long as you keep doing it, so pick the kind of count you'll still keep in three months.

Steps are also one part of the picture. The NHS asks adults to do strengthening activities on at least two days a week (NHS). After 65, it adds activities that improve strength, balance and flexibility on at least two days, to feel more confident on your feet (NHS, 65 and over).

7. Treat your phone's count as a rough guide

Phones and wearables estimate steps, and where you carry them changes the count. Counts from research and consumer devices are highly correlated "but can vary by 20% or more," the Paluch authors note, so the study numbers above may not match your device. Compare your count with itself, week to week, and don't worry about the exact figure. If your work keeps you on your feet all day, you can skip steps altogether.

Back to the impossible goal

Lee's teammate wasn't wrong that 10,000 was out of reach. The data showed it was never the line between healthy and not. In the TEDx talk, Lee says that for people who can reach it, more power to them, and that adding steps helps even if you never hit it (6:21 to 6:53). As Lee put it to Harvard Health: "Don't be intimidated or dissuaded by the 10,000 number."

To build this around your own week, try the 1h Protocol to Build an Exercise Routine, a program of practical education. Its free first chapter starts with a quick check, finds the pattern your last try followed (or a Tune-up if you already move regularly), and gives you one first step. The full program takes about an hour: why your last try stopped, what counts (steps are optional there, starting from your own usual number), one session planned from your slot to the next, a plan for the slot after a miss, and your week. You leave with a page of your changes, a log that counts the week with planned skips, and reviews on days 7, 14 and 30 in your calendar. Four one-tap check-ins follow by email on days 1, 7, 14 and 30, if you're signed in. Start free

Frequently asked questions

Where does 10,000 steps come from?

From a pedometer sold in Japan in the mid 1960s, called the Manpo meter. "Manpo in Japanese means 10,000 steps," as I-Min Lee explains (TEDxBoston, 1:20). It was a product name. US guidance calls it "not a guideline per se" (US guidelines, 2018).

How many steps a day is enough?

There's no official number. In a pooled analysis of 15 studies with 47,471 adults, more steps went with better long-term health outcomes, leveling off at about 8,000 to 10,000 a day for adults under 60 (Paluch et al., 2022). It's an association, and any increase from your own usual counts. If you came here about weight, see walking for weight loss.

Is walking enough exercise?

Brisk walking counts as moderate activity in NHS guidance, and the talk test tells you if you're there: you can talk but not sing (NHS). The same guidance adds strengthening activities on at least two days a week, so walking covers one part of it.

How many steps a day for older adults?

For adults 60 and over, the pooled analysis found the link with better long-term health outcomes leveled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day (Paluch et al., 2022); in Lee's study of US women with an average age of 72, it leveled at about 7,500 (Lee et al., 2019). Fewer steps still count. After 65, the NHS also suggests strength, balance and flexibility on at least two days a week (NHS).

Is my phone's step count accurate?

It's an estimate. Counts from research and consumer devices are closely related but can differ by 20% or more (Paluch et al., 2022), and carrying the phone in a bag can miss steps. Use it to compare your own weeks, not to match a study's number.

Sources

This article draws on Dr I-Min Lee's TEDxBoston talk and Harvard Health interview, Daniel Lieberman's interview on The Diary of a CEO, and the studies and guidance listed below.

• Dr I-Min Lee, 10,000 steps: fact, fiction, or fad? (TEDxBoston talk, 2024)
• Daniel Lieberman on The Diary of a CEO (podcast episode, 2023)
• Harvard Health Blog, 10,000 steps a day, or fewer? (interview with I-Min Lee, 2019)
• Lee et al, Association of step volume and intensity with all-cause mortality in older women (cohort study, 16,741 US women, average age 72, 2019)
• Paluch et al, Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts (pooled analysis of 15 cohort studies, 47,471 adults, 2022)
• Ding et al, Daily steps and health outcomes in adults (systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, 57 studies from 35 cohorts, 2025)
• US Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (guideline, 2018)
• Finkelstein et al, Effectiveness of activity trackers with and without incentives to increase physical activity (TRIPPA) (randomized trial, 800 full-time employees in Singapore, 2016)
• NHS, Physical activity guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64 (public health guidance, 2024)
• NHS, Physical activity guidelines for older adults, 65 and over (public health guidance, 2024)
• Apple, Use the Health app on your iPhone or iPad (help page, 2026)
• Google, Track your fitness activity (Google Fit help page, 2026)