How many steps a day do you need? What the studies show
About 7,000 steps captures most of the measured benefit. What the 2025 Lancet review and earlier studies found.
Walking advice, checked against the research.
Step counts, pace, weight loss and the health studies behind them. Every article links to its sources and says what the evidence doesn't show.
Does walking help you lose weight? What the trials show
Trials show modest loss, about 1.3 kg on average. What it takes and why results fall short of the arithmetic.
Recently updated
- Steps, distance and pace
Average walking speed by age: what the data shows
- Ways to walk
Walking vs cycling: what the research shows
- Steps, distance and pace
How many steps in a half marathon walk? (21K)
- Mind and mood
Walking meditation: what the research shows
- Habits and everyday walking
Walking to work: what the research shows
How we write these articles
Sources on every page
Each article links to the studies it relies on, and says when a figure comes from a summary rather than the paper itself.
Corrections in the open
When we rewrote an article, a note at the end lists what the earlier version claimed and what changed.
Our app, disclosed
We make StepMax. We say so wherever it comes up, and nothing on this site needs it.
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Our app
StepMax counts your steps, and now maps your walks
StepMax is made by the team behind this site. It counts steps in the background with your phone's built-in step sensor, which uses very little battery. Version 4.0 on Android adds walk mapping: record a route with GPS, follow your live distance and pace, and share the map when you finish. GPS uses more battery while a walk is being recorded.
- Hourly, daily, monthly and custom-range step charts
- Streaks of up to 1,000 days, uncapped levels and 172 achievements
- 30 characters to collect and unlock
- Friend challenges, leaderboards and community walking events
- Six languages, works offline, no account needed to start
Free to download, with ads and an optional paid VIP upgrade; some features, such as the lock screen walk tracker, need VIP. We haven't tested StepMax against other apps, and every article here works with any step counter.