Forget 10,000 Steps A Day — This Is The Number You Should Focus On Instead

You've probably heard getting at least 10,000 steps is crucial to maintaining your health. But how did we decide on that number... and is it really accurate?

How many steps have you taken today?

Most of us have been confronted by that question at some point in our lives, and many of us use our step count as a metric to gauge how active we are. For years we’ve been told that getting at least 10,000 steps is crucial to maintaining our health, but how did that number get chosen and is it really accurate?

That’s what we — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — discussed with Heather Milton, an exercise physiologist at NYU Langone Health in New York, when she stopped by our studio to give us tips and tricks for exercising better.

Listen to the full episode by pressing play:

“We always hear about 10,000 steps, and I actually read that that number is based on this pedometer that was designed in Japan [in the 1960′s],” Michelson said. “The [Japanese character] for 10,000 looks like a person walking, so... it just sort of became known for that.”