Treatments and supplements · Daily step counts / walking

How many steps a day should I aim for?

What we can tell you today: how thoroughly this has been studied.

Thoroughly studied

5 studies, of which 4 bring together the results of several trials in people. This is as strong as evidence gets.

5 Repeated evidence 4 studies

4 Large controlled trial 1 study

This says how thoroughly something has been studied — not whether it works for you. What each study actually found is in the study itself, and in the plain-language write-ups we are adding.

Appears under: Living longer in good health

The studies

5 Repeated evidence Relationship of Daily Step Counts to All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events.
2026 · Journal of the American College of Cardiology · manufacturer helped fund this
5 Repeated evidence Systematic review and meta-analysis of reduction in all-cause mortality from walking and cycling and shape of dose response relationship.
2015 · The international journal of behavioral nutrition and p · 280,000 participants
5 Repeated evidence How many steps a day to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality? A dose-response meta-analysis.
2022 · Journal of internal medicine
5 Repeated evidence Health effects of active commuting to work: The available evidence before GISMO.
2021 · Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 555 participants
4 Large controlled trial A lifestyle intervention of weight loss via a low-carbohydrate diet plus walking to reduce metabolic disturbances caused by androgen deprivation therapy among prostate cancer patients: carbohydrate and prostate study 1 (CAPS1) randomized controlled trial.
2020 · Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases · 100 participants