Oswaldo Royett

  Conventional wisdom would have us believe the journey to a long and healthy life begins with 10,000 steps. Each and every day. For those living a more sedentary lifestyle, it's a goal that can take some effort to maintain. We've also known for some time it's also almost certainly wrong. By analyzing data on tens of thousands of people across four continents compiled between 15 existing studies, a team of researchers has landed on a more comfortable figure: the optimal number is probably closer to 6,000 steps per day, depending on your age. Anything more is unlikely to further reduce your chances of stumbling into an early grave. "So, what we saw was this incremental reduction in risk as steps increase, until it levels off,"  said University of Massachusetts Amherst epidemiologist Amanda Paluch when the study was released in March 2022. "And the leveling occurred at different step values for older versus younger adults." Humans are essentially built to