Walking more than 8,200 steps a day can protect against obesity, depression: study

First at Five: Step By Step A new study looked at the number of daily steps required to reduce risk factors and prevent weight gain.

A new study says walking more than 8,200 steps a day offers protection against obesity, sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease and major depressive disorders.

The data, from Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, also suggests overweight individuals can reduce their risk of becoming obese by 64 per cent if they increase their daily steps from 6,000 to 11,000.

“I tell my patients that walking is medicine,” says Dr. Evan Brittain, a corresponding author with the study, in an interview.

“There may not be a ceiling on the number of steps that are beneficial for some conditions. For others, specifically diabetes and hypertension, there seems to be a sort of inflection point at 8,000 to 9,000 steps.

“The big take-home that’d we’d like to convey is more is generally better.”

Information for the study was gathered over four years from about 6,000 people who wore Fitbit activity trackers at least 10 hours a day and authorized use of that data with their personal electronic health records.

Brittain says the study’s analyzation of both data-sets is a run-up of things to come.

“Your doctor in a clinic may have access to your activity data and may be able to make personalized recommendations based on your weight, your other medical conditions,” says Brittain.

“This is sort of a prelude to personalized exercise recommendations sometime in the future.”