The health mantra that everyone should walk 10,000 steps a day is a “marketing gimmick” and “not based on science”, a professor of clinical exercise physiology has claimed. 

Alongside advice not to smoke, drink too much and eat your five a day, it is one of the best known health adages. 

However, Niall Moyna of Dublin City University believes it is misleading. 

“Back 60-years ago, a Japanese company at the time of the Tokyo Olympic Games came up with the first wearable step counter,” he told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“The name that they used for the counter meant ‘10,000 step metre’ - that’s when it came into popular culture and has been there for 60-years with no empirical evidence to back it up.” 

Mother's taking an exercise class with babies and toddlers in their buggies. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Professor Moyna continued that the adage has only gained in popularity in recent years because smartphones make it “very, very easy” to keep track of how many steps people take. 

“If you do nothing on a daily basis, you sit around at home, you’re ambulating, going to the bathroom, making a cup of tea, nothing else, you would take around 1,500 to 2,000 steps a day,” he said. 

“So, we tend to use 2,000 as a reference and anything above, you’re going to get a health benefit. 

“Basically… if you take an extra 517 steps beyond that 2,000, you actually get an 8% reduction in the risk of dying from mortal causes. 

“Then the sweet zone, what’s the optimum dose that we would need to get? What’s the maximum risk reduction with the least effort, it’s extra 6,700 steps.” 

A couple walking their dog. Picture by: Georg Wendt/dpa

According to the HSE, an active lifestyle can reduce a person’s risk of contracting a long-term disease by half and cut the risk of premature death by 20% to 30%. 

“It doesn’t matter what the disease is, whether it’s cardiovascular, dementia, diabetes,” Professor Moyna said. 

“It seems to be the same effect - do something and you get enormous benefits. 

“But if you go beyond a certain number, you don’t get anywhere near the same benefit.”

Main image: A grandmother and granddaughter walking in a park. Picture by: chrisstockphoto / Alamy. com.