What is a good distance to walk everyday?

Most of us know by now how detrimental prolonged sitting can be on our health. But the real question is how many steps should we be getting and what is a good distance to walk everyday?

Walk-it out

There is increasing evidence that a sedentary lifestyle can be detrimental to our cardiometabolic health, insulin levels, and even blood pressure. In a recent study looking at this exact topic found that even “frequent short bouts of standing and light to moderate walking can help to improve cardiovascular markers, lower blood pressure, and even improve blood glucose levels. They found in participants who were obese, that “even standing as an interruption to prolonged sitting significantly reduced postprandial glucose” (Buffey, 2022).

But how much walking should you try and walk everyday?

As Hippocrates stated, “walking is man’s best medicine.” The standard recommendation has more recently been walking 10,000 steps a day or 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity activity. But is that still recommended and doable? According to the step-based walking recommendations, walking “5,000-7,499” steps a day is low active, compared to being somewhat active if you walk “7,500 to 9,999” steps a day, walking over 10,000 steps a day is conserved being in the active category. Therefore, walking 10,000 steps a day is acknowledged as a daily activity goal across the world. According to another study, walking 10,000 steps 6 days a week has been found to significantly reduce blood pressure, helped to maintain bone mineral density, increase HDL, and improve glucose levels. Some studies found that even walking 10,000 steps 3 days a week could raise HDL levels and reduce LDL cholesterol.

Best ways to help reach your step goals

The best way to make any new lifestyle change is to first set a plan, establish a routine, and hold yourself accountable. Writing down your goals and using a calendar to write down your steps every day can be very helpful for you to make sure you reach your goals. Using a smart watch, pedometer, or using Health Tracker App on your phone can help to keep track of your daily steps. Also, reflecting back each week on what days it is easier for you to get your steps in and what days are harder. This can help you know week by week what days you can walk more to make up steps not reached on other days. But the bottom line is movement, even walking, can dramatically help to improve your health versus sitting down for long periods of time. So, just try and make it a point to move!

Watch Dr.Ellie’s video on how to get your steps in during the day, here.

If you are looking for ways to help optimize your health. Give our office a call today at (425) 686-4498 to learn more about how we can help you achieve your health goals.

Dr. Ellie Heintze, ND, LAc, is a naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist in Bothell, WA at her practice Starting Point Acupuncture. She specializes in chronic and complex cases and commonly treats neuropathy, fibromyalgia, migraines, autoimmune, and infertility cases. Dr. Ellie Heintze is also the author of the book, A Starting Point Guide to Going Gluten-Free  and Keep Calm and Zen Out available on Amazon.

Sources:

Walking and Health Markers: Buffey, A.J., Herring, M.P., Langley, C.K. et al. The Acute Effects of Interrupting Prolonged Sitting Time in Adults with Standing and Light-Intensity Walking on Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports Med 52, 1765–1787 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749379712007106

https://academic.oup.com/occmed/article/62/5/320/1490801?login=false

Walking and bone density: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21318440/

https://www.thaiscience.info/Journals/Article/JHRE/10985252.pdf