In this guide
- Where the 10,000-step number came from
- What the big step studies actually found
- The newest evidence: 7,000 steps
- Does walking speed matter?
- Walking, fat loss and NEAT
- Why walking makes the gym work better
- How I would get to 8,000 steps without trying
- Walking and your sex life
- My take
Men love complicated training. We want programmes, splits, heart-rate zones and supplements. Ask most men about walking and they will tell you it does not count as exercise.
I think that is a mistake. Walking is free, almost impossible to overdo, easy to recover from and good for your heart, your head and your waistline. In my work, the days are long and the physical demands are real, but some of the best habits are the simplest.
I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. If you have heart, joint or other health conditions, talk to a doctor before you change your activity level. The facts below come from The Lancet Public Health, JAMA, the NHS, the World Health Organization and other peer-reviewed research. The opinions are mine.
Where the 10,000-step number came from
The 10,000-step target is often traced back to a Japanese pedometer marketed in the 1960s, whose name roughly meant “10,000-step meter”. It was a catchy number, not the result of a clinical trial.
The authors of a major 2022 meta-analysis wrote it directly: although 10,000 steps per day is widely promoted, there was little evidence to support this specific recommendation (Paluch et al., PubMed). So researchers went and measured.
What the big step studies actually found
The 2020 JAMA study. Researchers followed 4,840 US adults aged 40 and over who wore accelerometers for up to a week, and tracked deaths for about ten years. Compared with taking 4,000 steps a day, taking 8,000 steps a day was associated with about a 51 percent lower risk of death from any cause, and 12,000 steps with about a 65 percent lower risk. Step intensity did not add much once total steps were accounted for (Saint-Maurice et al., PubMed).
The 2022 Lancet Public Health meta-analysis. This pooled participant-level data from 15 cohorts and more than 47,000 adults. People in the highest quartile of steps (a median of about 10,900 a day) had a 53 percent lower risk of death than those in the lowest quartile (about 3,500). The benefit kept growing until about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for adults aged 60 and over and 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day for adults under 60 (Paluch et al., PubMed).
The 2023 European Journal of Preventive Cardiology meta-analysis. Across 17 cohorts and more than 226,000 people, every extra 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality, and benefits started at surprisingly low step counts (Banach et al., PubMed).
These are observational studies. People who walk more might also be healthier in other ways, and researchers adjust for that as best they can. But the pattern is very consistent across countries and cohorts: more steps, lower risk, with the biggest gains at the low end.
The biggest win is not going from 10,000 to 15,000 steps. It is going from 3,000 to 7,000.
The newest evidence: 7,000 steps
In 2025, The Lancet Public Health published a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of 57 studies on steps and a wide range of health outcomes. Compared with 2,000 steps a day, 7,000 steps a day was associated with (Ding et al., PubMed):
- A 47 percent lower risk of death from any cause.
- A 25 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
- A 38 percent lower risk of dementia.
- A 22 percent lower risk of depressive symptoms.
- A 14 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
For several outcomes, the curve started to flatten at around 5,000 to 7,000 steps. The authors concluded that 10,000 steps remains a good target for more active people, but that 7,000 steps a day is a realistic and evidence-based goal for most.
That is my recommendation too: treat 7,000 as your minimum and 10,000 as a good day.
Does walking speed matter?
In the JAMA study above, faster stepping did not add much once total steps were counted. In the 2022 meta-analysis, the link between higher stepping rates and lower mortality weakened after adjusting for total steps, though some measures stayed significant.
But speed still matters for fitness. The NHS says that walking briskly can help you build stamina, burn excess calories and make your heart healthier, and that brisk walking counts towards the 150 minutes of moderate activity per week recommended for adults (NHS: walking for health). Brisk means you can still talk but not sing.
My approach: most of your steps can be easy, but include at least one brisk 10- to 20-minute walk most days. If you want to build real cardio, see my guide on how to build stamina.
Walking, fat loss and NEAT
Here is where walking becomes a secret weapon for a leaner body.
Scientists use the term NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, for all the energy you burn moving around outside formal exercise: walking, standing, fidgeting, carrying things. In a classic 1999 study published in Science, researchers overfed 16 non-obese adults by 1,000 calories a day for eight weeks. Fat gain varied a lot between people, and the biggest predictor was how much their NEAT increased. Some people unconsciously moved much more and gained little fat; others did not and gained more (Levine et al., PubMed).
You do not control NEAT entirely, but walking is the part you can control. And it has a big advantage over hard cardio: it barely affects your recovery. You can walk every day without hurting your gym sessions or your sleep.
When men diet, they often move less without noticing, because they feel tired. Tracking steps is a simple way to stop that drop. The NHS reminds us that an average man needs about 2,500 calories a day, and that number moves with how active you are (NHS: understanding calories).
Why walking makes the gym work better
Walking helps you recover from hard training by keeping blood flowing without adding real fatigue. It is my favourite activity for rest days, which I explained in rest days and overtraining.
It also helps your head. A 2024 BMJ analysis of exercise for depression found walking or jogging among the most effective forms of exercise for reducing symptoms (Noetel et al., PubMed). A walk outside, without your phone in your face, is one of the cheapest stress tools you have. For more on that, read how to reduce stress.
And morning light from an early walk helps set your body clock, which supports better sleep at night. I covered that in how much sleep do men need.
How I would get to 8,000 steps without trying
The World Health Organization says nearly one third of adults worldwide, about 1.8 billion people, do not meet the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of moderate activity per week (WHO: physical activity). Most of them are not lazy. Their days are simply built around sitting.
You fix that by building walking into the day, not by relying on willpower:
- A 10-minute walk after waking up, ideally outside. That is around 1,000 steps.
- A 10-minute walk after each main meal. Three meals, around 3,000 steps. It also helps digestion.
- Walking phone calls. If a call does not need a screen, walk.
- Stairs, not lifts, whenever it is a few floors.
- Park further away or get off transport a stop early.
- A longer walk on rest days, 30 to 60 minutes.
Add normal daily movement and you are at 7,000 to 9,000 steps without a single “workout”. Your phone already counts your steps, so use it.
Walking and your sex life
This might sound like a stretch, but it is not. Walking improves cardiovascular fitness and blood flow, helps with weight and blood pressure, and reduces stress. Those are exactly the factors behind healthy erections. I went through the research in exercise and erectile function.
A man who sits all day and then expects his body to perform at night is asking a lot. Regular walking is one of the easiest ways to look after the system that matters.
My take
Forget the debate about 10,000 steps. The research says the first few thousand steps you add are the most valuable, that 7,000 a day is a strong evidence-based target, and that more is generally better up to around 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults.
Walking will not give you a boxer’s conditioning or a bodybuilder’s arms. But it is the foundation that makes everything else work better: fat loss, recovery, stress, sleep and long-term health. Lift a few times a week, walk every day, and you are ahead of most men.
If you want the human stories of the women of this industry, read my columns on House of Maximo. Follow my work at maximogarciaworld.com, and for the 18+ side, fuckingpornstars.net.
Sources
- Ding D et al. Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 2025.
- Paluch AE et al. Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. The Lancet Public Health, 2022.
- Saint-Maurice PF et al. Association of daily step count and step intensity with mortality among US adults. JAMA, 2020.
- Banach M et al. The association between daily step count and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a meta-analysis. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2023.
- Levine JA et al. Role of nonexercise activity thermogenesis in resistance to fat gain in humans. Science, 1999.
- Noetel M et al. Effect of exercise for depression. BMJ, 2024.
- NHS. Walking for health.
- NHS. Understanding calories.
- World Health Organization. Physical activity fact sheet.
