As of: March 12, 2024, 6:47 p.m
By: Alexandra Grauvogl
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People who sit a lot can mitigate negative effects on their health by taking just 2,200 steps per day.
A study has also examined when you can benefit maximally.
© IMAGO / Pond5 Images
Those who sit a lot have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death.
But just taking a certain number of steps per day can significantly mitigate these dangers, as an Australian study shows.
Germans sit too much and move too little.
This was the result of a survey conducted by the German Sport University Cologne on behalf of DKV in 2023.
In this country, people sit for an average of 9.2 hours a day, and for 18 to 29 year olds it is even 10 hours.
Such a lifestyle is associated with negative health effects - including higher mortality and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
In a new study, Australian researchers looked at both steps per day and sitting time to see if walking can reduce the health risks associated with prolonged sitting.
This is how the study went
The study, which appeared in the “British Journal of Sports Medicine”, examined data from 72,174 test subjects (average age 61 years; 42 percent men) from the UK Biobank.
The study participants had to wear a tracker on their wrist for seven days to measure their physical activity and the time they spent sitting.
On average, participants took 6,222 steps per day.
The five percent of people who took the fewest steps (limit of 2200 steps per day) served as the comparison group.
This allowed researchers to estimate the impact of increasing step counts on the risk of death and cardiovascular disease.
The average time the subjects spent sitting was 10.6 hours per day.
Above this level, the researchers spoke of high sitting time, and below this level of low sitting time.
After around seven years of follow-up, 1,633 subjects had died and 6,190 suffered one or more “cardiovascular events”.
The latter include, for example, heart attack, heart failure, cardiomypathy, or venous thrombosis.
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The results: From this number of steps onwards, people who sat a lot benefited the most
The research team adjusted the data for other (lifestyle) factors such as smoking or unhealthy diet that could affect the results.
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In summary, the study came to the following results:
People can benefit maximally from their health by walking 9,000 to about 10,500 steps a day, even if they are sedentary for most of the day.
In people who sat a lot, this number of steps reduced mortality by 39 percent and the risk of cardiovascular disease by 21 percent, compared to the group who took 2,200 steps or fewer per day.
According to the study, 50 percent of the benefits occur with 4,000 to 4,500 steps per day.
And this applies to both high and low seating levels.
The researchers also found that health benefits were noticeable after just 2,200 steps
.
In people with a low sedentary lifestyle, 9,800 to 10,300 steps per day reduced mortality by 31 percent and the risk of cardiovascular disease by 29 percent.
If you take more than 10,500 steps per day, mortality only drops slightly.
Get active: step by step to better health!
The results of this study should encourage people who have to sit a lot due to their job or other circumstances.
Even a little activity can significantly reduce the negative effects on health.
Another study showed that an 11-minute walk can significantly reduce the risk of cardiac death.
Therefore, try to integrate walks into your everyday life.
Examples: Walk instead of taking the bus one or two stops.
Establish a short walk before the coffee meeting with friends and family.
Make phone calls while walking.
Use a pedometer app on your smartphone or a fitness tracker to make your successes visible.
Or use one of our training plans in the PDF library to anchor sport and exercise as a routine in your everyday life.
You can download this after a one-time, free registration with our login service USER.ID.
You will find the following training plans, among others:
6-week “Learn Push-Up” training plan for beginners
4-week training plan for advanced users
8-week training plan for 100 push-ups in one go
2-week training plan “Get fit with jumping rope”
You can find out what benefits push-ups and jumping rope have for your muscles and cardiovascular health in the linked articles.
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