Are There Health Benefits for Getting in Your Daily Steps

by Matt Weik April 1, 2024

You don’t need to go very far to look around and realize that we are under attack by an obesity epidemic. The problem is that we’ve accepted obesity as part of our society and the fact that no one wants to talk about it due to certain people getting their feelings hurt, everyone simply turns the other cheek and brushes it under the rug. While most people don’t worry about their daily steps, that could be the easiest entry point into improving their health.

Sure, walking is a form of cardio. That said, it doesn’t take much effort to focus on your daily steps and ensure you’re getting up and moving around throughout the day versus being sedentary most of the day. What you should do is make a conscious effort to pay more attention to your daily steps and get more in.

Now, I’m not asking you to go walk a marathon or spend four hours a day putting one foot in front of the other on hot pavement but be more mindful of how many daily steps you take. According to research, anyone who takes less than 5,000 daily steps is categorized as being “sedentary.”

In this article, we will look at the health benefits associated with taking more daily steps and how you can seemingly increase your steps without much effort. With such a simple goal, it can have huge rewards for your overall health.

Let’s dive into it!

How Many Daily Steps Should You Focus On?

Over the years, you’ve probably heard an arbitrary number of 10,000 daily steps being thrown out via media outlets. They use this number as if it’s gospel and the holy grail, when in actuality, you don’t even need to hit that number to see health improvements.

While some people live an active lifestyle and surpass 10,000 daily steps quite easily, if you’re under 10,000 steps, you may still see some pretty amazing health benefits.

A key to at least increasing your movement and activity comes down to not allowing yourself to stay sedentary all day long at a desk or in a seat. Be sure to get up and move throughout the day, and you may find increasing your daily steps by a considerable number is actually quite easy.

Unfortunately, for those who are sedentary, the research shows some negative effects. For instance, a study published in 2021 found that people who took 5,000 daily steps or less were at a greater risk of exercise resistance. What this means is that your body isn’t able to properly burn fat, which could cause you to hold onto and store body fat more easily. Essentially, this study shows that if you want to burn more fat throughout the day and improve overall health, you need to increase your daily steps.

When doing a comparison in the study, the researchers found that taking around 8,500 daily steps helped to prevent exercise resistance from setting in.

How Can You Increase Your Daily Steps?

Below are a few ways you can increase your daily steps to achieve more significant health benefits than if you were sedentary all day.

1. Move More During the Day

One of the easiest things you can do to increase your daily steps is to move more during the day. That means if you work in an office setting, rather than sending an email or calling an associate who works down the hall or in a nearby cubicle, get up and walk over to them to ask the question or fill them in on information.

By doing so, this will get you up out of your chair and walking throughout the day in short bursts. In fact, you probably won’t even realize that you’ve put in hundreds of extra steps each day without even thinking about it.

2. Slowly Increase Your Daily Steps

You don’t need to go from 500 daily steps to something like 15,000 overnight. In fact, you don’t even need to get in 15,000 daily steps to see the health benefits. Find ways to slowly increase your steps, such as parking further back in a parking lot and walking up to the door. You can do this while going into work, when grocery shopping, or anywhere you need to go where there is a parking lot.

Again, without much effort at all, you can add hundreds of additional steps by making this simple change.

Then when you are in buildings that are multiple floors, use the steps rather than the elevator or escalator. Finding ways to take more steps during the day is not difficult, it’s merely a matter of making an effort to “take the extra step” rather than being lazy and taking the easy way out of having to move more.

3. Utilize Breaks in the Day to Be Active

Whether you have breaks at work (such as a lunch break) or a break between classes at college, go for a walk. It can be a 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or however many minutes walk you have time for.

Using breaks throughout the day to increase your daily steps can help break up a boring, hectic, or stressful day and allow you to get some endorphins flowing.

Additionally, getting outdoors for a walk allows you to get some fresh air, decompress, and helps you feel better (plus the natural vitamin D boost from the sun will help improve your mood).

The Health Benefits of Getting in More Daily Steps

You don’t have to spend all day pounding the pavement or walking on a treadmill to get any sort of health benefits. However, every little bit of movement adds up to greater and greater health benefits.

For example, one study looked at the overall health benefits that occurred when individuals went from 4,000 steps per day up to 8,000 daily steps. What they found was that the increase in daily steps created a 51% lower risk of death from all causes.

Boosting things slightly, they then looked at individuals who went from 4,000 steps to 12,000 daily steps, and the health improvements increased to a 65% lower risk of death from all causes.

Another study dove deep into 17 other studies completed on the topic and found that those who went from 5,000 steps to 6,000 daily steps (even with as small as an additional 1,000 steps) had a lower risk of premature death.

Become a Walking Rock Star!

Many people avoid walking and focusing on their daily steps because they tire easily. While simply moving more will help improve endurance, you could also use something like Holistic Bin Marine Phytoplankton.

By adding Holistic Bin Marine Phytoplankton to your nutrition and supplement regimen, you may find your energy and endurance levels are boosted, your muscle recovery is enhanced, and your metabolism has been increased a few notches.

If you want to improve your health, Marine Phytoplankton provides pure marine algae that are packed with vegan protein, vitamins, amino acids, chlorophyll, trace minerals, and powerful antioxidants, thanks to the addition of Astaxanthin.

Increase your daily steps and feel better in the process with the help of Holistic Bin Marine Phytoplankton.