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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.
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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.)
“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.”
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