Every Step You Take Counts

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Millions of people wear electronic step-counting bracelets or use apps on their phones – aiming for ten thousand steps a day. Claudia Hammond asks whether this routine motivates her – or if it’s actually setting her up for failure. Some experts applaud the bar charts and graphs which track progress as proof of healthy activity. But can the constant checking take away the pleasure of exercise? American scientists found that after the novelty wore off people did less because the competitive nature of step counting undermined their intrinsic motivation. Claudia looks for evidence behind the daily target of 10,000 steps. It dates back to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when a Japanese company produced the “manpo-kei” pedometer (literally “ten thousand steps meter”) to boost activity – though the evidence to support the 10k target appears weak. Measuring activity has now moved into the workplace. One Dutch company gave free Fitbits to workers to track their steps, calories burned and sleep. Although drop-out rates were high, stress levels did fall. Some insurance companies now offer discounts for the most active – but steps counters ignore factors like age, stride length and speed. And who’s to say you haven’t given the step counter to your dog, running around the park? (Photo: Getty Images)