For some time now, there has been an unwritten rule of 10,000 steps for people trying to lose weight.
It is believed that if you walk this much in a day, you will lose a certain amount of kilos.
But, as it turns out, it's not that simple. The rule may indeed be useful, but there is something else that is more effective.
American scientists conducted a special study.
It showed that the best results were achieved by people who focused on the time spent exercising rather than the number of steps.
Moreover, with the right distribution of time resources, a person not only gets rid of excess weight, but also prolongs life.
As for the study, the project involved about 15,000 women over 62 years old. Their data was studied over four years.
Each woman wore a fitness tracker to measure her activity levels and completed annual health questionnaires.
It turned out that those who walked 8,000 to 8,500 steps every day had a 40% reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
This is compared to those who took 3,000 steps every day.
But it was also found that a similar reduction in risk was seen in those who exercised for 75 minutes daily.
From this, scientists came to the conclusion that the notorious 10,000 step rule has absolutely no advantages over traditional exercises.
In other words, the researchers say there is no "magic" rule associated with calculating distance traveled based on steps.
