Medical journalist Michael Mosley investigated the supposed health benefits of walking 10.000 steps a day.
In research he conducted with Professor Rob Copeland of Sheffield Hallam University, and which was recorded in the BBC documentary "The Truth About Getting Fit", Mosley first tackled the subject of where this figure comes from.
It was used for the first time during a Japanese marketing campaign before the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964.
One company advertised the Manpo-Kei (10.000 step meter), based on the work of academic Yoshiro Hatano, to encourage Japanese people to be more physically active.
Mosley went on to study whether, after 50 years, we should still strive to reach the same number, or turn to an alternative called "Active 10".
It is a campaign conducted by the Institute of Public Health in England, which is based on 3 ten-minute walks during the day.
During the research, the scientists of that institute divided the participants into two groups.
One had the goal of walking 10.0000 steps (about 8 kilometers) at once, while the other went for three walks of 10 minutes each.
Respondents from the second group covered an average of 2,5 kilometers, which is only 3.000 steps.
The results showed that it was this second type of activity that benefited the participants from the 10.000 steps taken.
"They walked faster than the subjects from the first group, and it was precisely the higher intensity of the exercise that contributed to its greater efficiency," the scientists state.
The speed at which we walk thus proved to be a more important factor than the number of steps taken.
Mosley and Copeland also state that it was easier for respondents to fit three 10-minute walks into their daily schedule compared to people who walked eight kilometers at a time, reports B92.
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