is taking 10,000 steps every day really the magical path to achieving your fitness goals?

his patients ask cardiologist christopher labos about the 10,000-steps-a-day doctrine all the time, that seemingly magical number built into fitness trackers adorning millions of torsos, wrists and ankles worldwide.labos recently wondered, where does the trendy target come from and is it backed by real science?according to labos, who also has a degree in epidemiology, “there’s no real evidence that the 10,000 steps threshold actually means anything.”the slogan can be traced to japanese walking clubs and a marketing campaign circa the 1960s. in 1965, a japanese company released a commercial pedometer, which they called manpo-kei — kei, meaning meter, and manpo, 10,000 steps.it was based on the work of academic dr. yoshiro hatano, who, concerned with rising rates of obesity, found that the average japanese citizen took between 3,500 and 5,000 steps a day. hatano calculated that increasing the number to 10,000 would be associated with a reduction in blood pressure and glucose levels, lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

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then, in the mid-1990s, what’s believed to be the first english language scientific article was published, involving 24 obese japanese people with type 2 diabetes. it found that people who walked at least 10,000 steps daily on a flat field saw more weight loss and improved insulin sensitivity than people on diet alone.from there, the 10,000 steps mantra took off. “it just seems to have caught on,” said labos, from montreal. “we human beings like nice round numbers. but there’s nothing essentially magical about it. it doesn’t mean you’re going to have negative health outcomes if you don’t hit it, or that if you go beyond it you’ll be better off.”fitbit starts everyone off with a default goal of 10,000 steps daily, which the company says is a rough equivalent to the u.s. surgeon general’s (and canadian physical activity) recommendations to accumulate 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week, or at least 150 minutes per week. that amount should be sufficient “to reduce your risk for disease and help you lead a longer, healthier life,” the company said in a post on the “magic” of 10,000 steps.

in a recent article for mcgill university’s office for science and society, labos broke it down this way: an otherwise healthy person who doesn’t exercise regularly might take 6,000 to 7,000 steps a day. a 30-minute walk would add 3,000 to 4,000 steps, depending on their stride.however, a study published earlier this year by university of british columbia researchers found fitbit devices tend to overestimate steps in “free-living” — meaning outside a lab, out and about in the real world — settings. it tends to capture things like arm motion, and count it as a step when it’s not really an actual step.according to the researchers, the devices are most likely to provide accurate measures of steps when worn on the torso “while walking at normal or self-paced walking speeds.”“it does a really good job at tracking and monitoring patterns of behaviour,” said lead author lynne feehan, a clinical associate professor in ubc’s department of physical therapy. “so, i wear my fitbit, and i notice that today i had fewer steps than i did yesterday. that’s probably an accurate indication that i did fewer steps.”feehan said 10,000 steps is a popular metric because it tends to correspond with people who are, on average, meeting physical activity guidelines.however, some studies suggest it might be lowballing the ideal target by as much as 50 per cent. others say 7,500 steps will get you the money.a 2017 study involving 111 glasgow postal workers (male and female) suggests 15,000 steps a day may be more ideal. researchers found that those who walked, on average, 15,000 steps a day or more — or spent more than seven hours a day upright — had less abdominal fat, lower bmi’s and better blood sugar and cholesterol levels compared to postal workers who spent more time sitting.another study published in 2004 turned to an old order amish community in southern ontario. in all, 98 amish adults agreed to wear electronic pedometers for a week and fill out log sheets. researchers found that the average number of steps per day was 18,425 for men, and 14,196 for women. which may explain their low prevalence of obesity (zero per cent of the men and nine per cent of the women were obese.)still, a literature review commissioned by the public health agency of canada in 2010 concluded that 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day is enough to meet public health guidelines for the minimal amount of recommended mvpa — moderate to vigorous physical activity.“it’s not like i’d tell anybody who is taking 10,000, 11,000 or 12,000 to slow down to 7,500,” said lead author catrine tudor-locke, of the university of massachusetts amherst. “keep doing what you’re doing — awesome. but get at least 7,500.”people should walk at a pace of at least 100 steps per minute, she said. “if you were to take 10,000 or 12,000 steps a day i know for sure you are doing purposely fast walking, because you just can’t rack up those numbers going back and forth to the bathroom.”but step counting can be too narrow, said leigh vanderloo, an exercise scientist at participaction. it doesn’t account for swimming, rowing or other “non-step” activity. it’s also recommended adults get at least two days of strength training activities per week.

according to fitbit, 10,000 steps each day typically burns about 2,000 to 3,500 extra calories each week. one pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories, “so depending on your weight and workout intensity, you could lose about one pound per week simply by completing an extra 10,000 steps each day,” the company said on its website.but when it comes to weight loss, labos said people are further ahead not eating extra calories instead of trying to burn them off later. we tend to underestimate the calories we eat and overestimate the calories we burn.  “people look at a plate of food and think that has 200 or 400 calories and it ends up having 800 calories,” he said. “or if you ask people, ‘how many calories did you just burn on your half hour walk,’ they’ll say, ‘oh, i probably burned, like, 1,000 calories’ when it’s probably closer to 200.”rather than hyper-focusing on a number on body-worn motion sensors, labos believes it’s probably more fruitful just to tell people to go out and exercise. anytime people go from “zero to something,” they benefit, he said. “i don’t think we need to overly obsess about an actual threshold number.”• email: skirkey@postmedia.com | twitter: sharon_kirkey‏