For years we have heard 10,000 steps a day is the goal for good health.
But it turns out that there was very little science to support that.
The origins of the 10,000 steps myth is pretty murky, but it's believed to have started with a marketing campaign from a Japanese company selling a pedometer.
The idea makes sense, since exercise is clearly good for your health, but no one had ever done research to see if it was true.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has finally done the science looking at over 2,000 adults over 11 years.
Not surprisingly the researchers found that getting more exercise is good, so getting 6,000 was better than getting 5,000. But they didn’t find there was any specific benefit to hitting ten thousand steps.
But they did find benefits from another number of steps...7,000.
According to the research, hitting that goal reduced the risk of premature death by 50 to 70 percent.
That doesn’t mean there was anything negative about walking more. Of course, exercise has been shown to help with everything from weight lost to cognitive health.
However when it comes to setting your pedometer, 7,000 should be the goal.