
10k Steps a Day Is a Myth. The Number to Stay Healthy Is Far Lower - bookofjoe
https://www.wsj.com/articles/10-000-steps-a-day-is-a-myth-the-number-to-stay-healthy-is-far-lower-11591968600
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bookofjoe
[https://archive.vn/DAQwN](https://archive.vn/DAQwN)

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blunte
Did anyone believe that the number was exact and accurate for all people?

Are there people who think, "Oh, I've only gotten 9,500 steps a day this week;
my health will begin to fail." ?

10k steps a day is not a myth, it's a goal. X glasses of water a day is a
goal. Most health instructions are goals, and most people will fall short of
the specific targets. How short you fall is likely to have some impact on your
health, but each person is different.

While being active is undoubtedly very important for health, it's very clumsy
to focus on one behavior and highlight the difference in mortality risk. It's
very likely that more active people have other habits that contribute
(significantly) to mortality risk reduction.

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hn_throwaway_99
But the "X glasses of water a day" example you give _is_ a total myth. There
is literally no evidence that humans need any "goal" when it comes to drinking
water, just drink when you're thirsty.

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quesera
This is overbroad.

Many people are acclimated to low levels of dehydration and do not feel
thirsty when they should.

Setting an imprecise, but safe, target number is helpful.

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snazz
I've noticed that I drink a ton more water when I have my water bottle on my
desk---I rarely get up to go get myself a drink (because I'm deep in whatever
work I'm doing), so I would wait too long without the water bottle. The
convenience factor certainly plays a role in determining what the "thirstiness
threshold" is.

~~~
gameswithgo
but is it doing you any good? are just drinking more often but smaller
amounts? is it just nice to drink but not useful?

~~~
snazz
> are just drinking more often but smaller amounts?

Probably. I don't measure my water consumption, but I'm guessing that I drink
smaller amounts. Even if my average hydration level is the same, it never goes
too low this way, which means that I feel better.

I don't have any objective way to measure the health benefits of drinking a
certain amount of water, but it definitely makes me feel better to be more
hydrated, so I'm guessing it's good for my health.

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henriquez
> Among the group, walking approximately 4,400 steps a day was associated with
> a 41% reduction in mortality compared with walking 2,700 steps a day.
> Walking around 7,500 steps was associated with a 65% reduction.

The headline does not match the content whatsoever. “The Number To Stay
Healthy” implies a threshold beyond which there is no benefit. Yet the data
suggests that more steps leads to better health outcomes, so 10k is certainly
better than 4K or 7k.

If I were the author of this piece I’d be pissed to see it mischaracterized by
this clickbait trash headline.

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Wowfunhappy
So is there "no benefit" to taking 20K steps a day versus 10K?

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tedmiston
Maybe the point at which diminishing marginal returns really kick in, and
"benefit"... with respect to what metric are worthwhile factors to consider
here. The graph shows mortality rate but perhaps other cardiovascular disease
markers would be meaningful to look at here.

In general, it would be nice for one to know some correlation between how the
number of steps taken reduces one's risk. From what the article suggests,
presumably these would be non-linear relationships.

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IfOnlyYouKnew
At 44% mortality reduction for 4,700 steps, and 65% at 7,500, I can’t help but
draw a curve in my mind where 10,000 steps is awfully close to the asymptote
it is approaching, or at least an inflection point where further benefits
rapidly diminish.

So the original figure of 10,000 would be surprisingly close to the mark,
considering its genesis.

~~~
blunte
10,000 is also a nice number. It's big enough to be impressive, but not so big
that we cannot imagine reaching it.

It also takes 10,000 hours to master a skill...

There are probably other "10,000" goals in human behavior.

~~~
andi999
there is the 10,000 sentences method for aquiring a foreign language.

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hn_throwaway_99
Most of these "recommendations" turn out to be myths. They are generally "good
ideas" that have _some_ experimental backing (e.g. "walking is better than
sitting"), but then someone puts out a number that people repeat ad infinitum
because it sounds good. 10k steps, 8 glasses of water a day, 10k hours to
"master" something, are all basically just catchy slogans.

~~~
tosers4
Catchy numbered slogans are also more effective for getting a message across
and setting a goal

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mshook
As far as I know this magical number comes from Japan as in 1965 they released
a pedometer labeled Manpo-kei which supposedly means "10,000 steps meter"...

From the last link: “It turns out the original basis for this 10,000-step
guideline was really a marketing strategy,” she explains. “In 1965, a Japanese
company was selling pedometers, and they gave it a name that, in Japanese,
means ‘the 10,000-step meter.’”

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedometer#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedometer#History)
[https://www.news-medical.net/health/Where-
did-10000-steps-a-...](https://www.news-medical.net/health/Where-
did-10000-steps-a-day-come-from.aspx)
[https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/10000-ste...](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/10000-steps-
rule/590785/)

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6510
Health and fitness research is amazingly vague and.. well shit. Or no wait,
the term in underfunded. We should be sinking hundreds of billions into
figuring out these things.

The stuff here talks about the amount of physical exercise to stay healthy! In
what other field would such things be acceptable? You just cant say "Stay
healthy", there is no such thing. (at least not today)

I want to see the entire chart derived from huge data sets but I believe the
really interesting data to live around minimal activity. There is probably a
sweet spot around 20-100 steps where fewer really starts killing you really
fast. Then we can get to addressing the issue and possibly improve
average/collective health dramatically.

I wouldn't mind showing up for bench marking 1 time per year. If the report
puts me in a group slowly killing themselves I would be interested in
solutions. It might sound absurd but I already pay 25 euro for some smokes.
They say it is for my health but Nicotine addicts don't need to smoke.

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jonnypotty
Easy goals so people don't have to think. 5 a day. 10,000 steps. 2 metres.

Is anyone surprised?

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znpy
this article is flagged. I'm seeing a lot of flagging lately, here on HN. Did
anyone notice the same thing ?

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tedmiston
Yes. My guess would be because the title is clickbait-y (though it is the
actual title).

The title also doesn't seem to match the research results in the article.

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rb808
pre-covid I easily did 10k steps every day and I really wasn't healthy.

