A SHORTER WALK IN THE PARK

Good health at only 7,000 steps or less a day

We all know that walking makes the heart stronger, and controls your weight, cholesterol and blood sugar levels which can directly damage the heart. It’s a form of low impact, moderate-intensity exercise that has a wide range of health benefits and few risks that almost anyone can do.

But how much walking does it take to achieve these health benefits?

While there isn’t a specific number of steps designated by the Centers for Disease Control, a lifestyle that involves 5,000 or fewer steps a day is generally considered sedentary or having limited physical activity.

For years, the idea of taking 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) has been accepted as the gold standard for a healthy lifestyle. However, few people know that the 10,000-step goal originated from a 1960s Japanese marketing campaign for a pedometer, not from scientific evidence. For many people in our increasingly sedentary, car-based culture, this goal is difficult to maintain on a daily basis.

A groundbreaking new study published in The Lancet Public Health in July, 2025 suggests that a more attainable target of 7,000 steps a day (about three miles) may be enough to significantly reduce the risk of serious health issues, especially in older adults.

After examining data from 57 studies from 2014 to 2025 covering over 160,000 adults worldwide, researchers found that walking approximately 7,000 steps per day significantly decreased the risk of various major health concerns. Compared to individuals taking around 2,000 steps daily, those reaching the 7,000-step mark showed a remarkable 47% lower risk of many of the factors related to pre-mature mortality. Beyond this, the study highlighted notable reductions in cardiovascular disease (25%), dementia (38% lower), diabetes (14%), certain cancers (6%) and depression (22%). Even falls were reduced by 28%.

(The “ideal” number of steps can vary depending on individual factors like age, health conditions, disability and activity level. Ask your doctor to help you come up with the most appropriate step goals for your specific needs.)

While the benefits for some conditions, like heart disease, continued to show modest increases beyond 7,000 steps, the most significant improvements tended to plateau around this figure. This suggests that while more activity is always generally better, the incremental benefits after 7,000 steps become less pronounced for many key health indicators. It offers a more accessible goal for most people, especially seniors, than the 10,000- step model.

“The study just reinforces the idea that exercise is nature’s best medicine and that there is a huge difference with even just modest exercise,” says Dr. Joseph W. Knowles, a cardiologist at Stanford. He points to a Stanford study published in August where researchers looked at how much activity people across the country were getting. They tracked smartphone users across 1,600 U.S. cities and found a link between a city’s walkability and physical activity levels.

“It showed if you move to a more walkable environment, you are significantly increasing your walking…” Knowles says. “It’s compelling.”

“Aiming for 7000 steps is a realistic goal based on our findings, which assessed health outcomes in a range of areas that hadn’t been looked at before,” says Melody Ding, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Sydney, who was the larger study’s lead author. “However, for those who cannot yet achieve 7000 steps a day, even small increases in step counts, such as increasing from 2000 to 4000 steps a day, are associated with significant health gain.” “According to my study, even small increases of steps compared with the baseline (2000 steps/day) were associated with important benefits. So the message should be: do something and move, and if possible, 7k is still a good target for older adults.”

Taking more steps a day also helps lower the risk of premature death from all causes. In one March 2022 study, researchers found that for adults 60 and older, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.

Dr. Cathy Lee, a clinical professor in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a physician scientist at the Greater Los Angeles VA, is also one of the co-directors of the Gerofit Program, a supervised exercise program for veterans under which, based on a full physical assessment, patients are given prescriptions for exercise

Lee says walking is the best exercise for seniors and suggests a gradual plan, especially for those who have not built physical activity into their daily routine.

“Maybe a good start would be to take a week, have a pedometer with you and see how many steps you get in on an average day and then slowly add 100 steps a week,” Lee says. She also suggests that 7,000 steps is a good goal. For older women who may live alone, she recommends getting into an exercise group. “The socialization aspect is under studied and has more benefits than we realize,” Lee says.

“The biggest bang for your buck comes with going from sedentary to moderately active,” says Dr. Knowles. “Thirty or 45 minutes of modest intensity five to six days a week is what’s recommended if you’re starting out. Exercise helps in sleep, intelligence, stress relief, blood pressure, weight control, diabetes, and lipids, which prevent heart disease.”

Knowles says it takes a while for women to build muscular strength. “The most important thing is to find something you can do and do it,” he says. “Weight-bearing activity for older women is also important. It helps strengthens the bones.”

Although 7,000 steps are not an absolute, says Ding, accumulating daily steps offers a broad range of health benefits.

“Even low step counts, such as 4k, offers health benefits than lower step counts, she says. “When one can, aim for 7k, which is associated with substantial risk reduction for a range of adverse health outcomes.”