How does step count influence health?

As an adult, walking is one of the most common methods that people use to get more exercise. You can start it at any time, it's free, and it's easy to fit it into your day whenever it works for you. Many doctors recommend walking for people who are inactive as a way to improve their health. 

Most often, 10,000 steps are suggested as a goal, but recent research suggests that even less than that can produce benefits. People with low levels of physical activity may take only 4,000 steps a day or fewer and this constitutes low physical activity.

Physical activity should be gradually increased for sedentary individuals by walking along with their normal daily activities. Besides being a low-impact exercise suitable for people of any age or fitness level, it is also convenient and accessible to all. As an example, you can easily incorporate walking into your daily life as an active commuting activity.

In the past, doctors were trying to monitor only high-intensity exercises such as jogging and bicycling, mostly because people did not usually remember how many walks they had and there was no option to be able to measure such light-intensity physical activity.

But everything changed with the appearance of modern technology such as smartphones, smartwatches, and fitness trackers. Wearable technologies like smartwatches can help you track the exact number of steps you take each day.

There was evidence of the health benefits of low-intensity activity long before the step counter made an appearance.  For instance, some studies showed hints of a connection between sitting for extended periods of time and poor health.

As step counters and pedometers appeared and start to spread, the research could be made more precise and accurate. I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has been the lead author of a study published in JAMA International Medicine.

The researchers gave wearable devices to more than 16,000 older women as they went about daily activities for seven days and then observed their health and longevity four years later. The study found that women who walked roughly 4,400 steps each day had a 40% reduced mortality risk compared with "least active" women, who walked an average of 2,700 steps per day. Admittedly, according to the study, the health benefits of walking "maxed out," at approximately 7,500 steps per day.

The importance of counting your steps

Keeping track of your steps can make a huge difference in your daily routine. It's a great way to make sure you're getting sufficient exercise every day. In fact, numerous studies showed that the use of measurable fitness benchmarks is able to improve the amount of exercise.

Besides the boost physical activity, a more recent study suggests that tracking daily steps can reduce the risk of health problems that contribute to heart attacks and broken bones. In this study, researchers analyzed data on 1,297 participants.

In the clinical trials, half of the participants were randomly assigned to track their steps with pedometers for 12 weeks, and the other half did not. People involved in the study walked about 7,500 steps a day and got 90 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a week in at least 10-minute sessions when they started.

According to the study, people who used pedometers were getting about 30 minutes more of moderate to vigorous exercise each week after three to four years. In addition, users of pedometers had a 44% lower likelihood of having a fracture and a 66% lower likelihood of suffering a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke.

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Benefits of Tracking Your Steps

Due to the rise of wearable devices, people have become obsessed with tracking their steps throughout the day. If you log your steps every day, you might wonder what exactly walking your steps every day does for your health.

Fortunately, meeting your daily goals can do much more than just provide you satisfaction. Moreover, physical activity, even just walking, can have a tremendous impact on your health, and does much more than you might realize. So, let’s look at some of the benefits brought by walking and counting steps:

1. Keeps you focused on your progress.

During the process of becoming more active, there will be times when you believe you haven't achieved the goals you set for yourself within your time frame. We all forget our past successes sometimes when we set ourselves new challenges.

It's helpful to keep track of your daily steps so that you can see your progress. The data you store for a long time serves as a reminder of your accomplishments, so you can compare the numbers over time.

Assume you were walking 5000 steps per day before using a pedometer but now you're walking 10000 steps per day. You may have accomplished something unplanned, like hiking 13,000 steps with your buddies on a nice afternoon. Or maybe you went for a run and bested your previous record. This will trigger positive feelings and a feeling of confidence in yourself. When you need a boost, it's always helpful to look back at your previous wins.

2. Offers motivation

In her opinion, Dr. Kristamarie Collman says, "For some, it can spike motivation and help set attainable goals depending on one's lifestyle. Once you have reached the initial goal, it can push you to work up to more steps. Tracking your steps can help keep you accountable for moving throughout the day, and it certainly provides a nudge to sneak in more activity for improved overall health. One of the best parts is it helps to keep track of the progress which has been made over the long term. This can be a total confidence booster."

3. Holds you accountable.

You surely know this story too well. In the beginning, everyone who starts a fitness program seems unstoppable. But, as the time passes, their enthusiasm wears off, and they no longer speak of the regimen they used to be enthusiastic about.

Sometimes life gets in the way of staying on track with your fitness goals. Thus, being accountable for your fitness goals will help you stay in the game. Simply recording the count of your daily steps will encourage you to move regardless of circumstances.

Consider this example: If you don't go running in the morning because you hit the snooze button of your alarm, you will see a smaller number in the step count. As you see that number decrease, you can realize that you might've made a bad decision.

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1. Maintains regulated blood sugar levels

You can regulate your blood sugar levels by walking if you do so on a regular basis. "Data out of Diabetes Care revealed that a 15-minute walk after eating a meal significantly improves blood sugar," explains Dr. Robert Zembroski, DC, DACNB, MS. Cardiovascular activity improves your body's metabolism and insulin sensitivities, so your body is able to process glucose more efficiently, lowering your blood sugar.

And by using a step counter you can make sure you never skip your walks. A smartwatch that includes a step counter feature, such as the ones from Deeprio, can also show you your overall evolution in the increase of steps walked over time, the calories burned and many other features linked with your vital signs.

How to track your steps

Thanks to the developments in the fitness industry, there’s no shortage of wearables and apps that can track your steps. There is no secret that counting steps may bring various advantages, such as the ones mentioned above, thus wearables companies made sure to include the pedometer function in their devices.

People who are interested in fitness often refer to these devices as "wearable technology." They not only record your steps, but also your heart rate, calories burned, distance, and other data. Due to their location on your wrist, they don't interfere with your daily activities and are also a way to check your notifications and the time.

Deeprio is a company focused on designing such wearable devices and their devices offer various health features. 24/7 heart rate monitor, Sp02 monitor, sleep tracking, step counting, smart reminders for movement reminder, drink water reminder, or anything else that is important, and guided relaxation breathing are just some examples of the features offered by the Deeprio smartwatches.

Monitoring your health and understanding your health condition is the primary focus of all the features listed above. Moreover, for some of those vital signs, smartwatches can offer advice regarding how to improve or maintain your health condition!

Nevertheless, the smartwatches offered by Deeprio are more than just health-focused. Those smartwatches offer quick access to all the notifications that you receive on your phone, quick replay to calls and text messages, stopwatch/countdown timer, music, and even sports mods.

With high precision, the smartwatches from Deeprio are capable of tracking and journaling various exercise modes such as: running, walking, spinning, trekking, basketball, yoga, rowing, cricket, strength training, free weight training, and more.

Deeprio's smartwatches are a great choice if you are looking for a device that will help you track everything that matters to you, calculate your steps, and provide you with important health insights.

Final words

You can use a step counter for example to encourage yourself to be more active, maintain your health, and shed some pounds. You are reminded and motivated to stay active by seeing objective data on a device that has the counting steps feature.

Furthermore, the benefits of physical activity can be felt almost anywhere in your life, and using a smartwatch with a step counter to measure and analyze your activity can give you valuable insights.

With integrated heart rate tracking, step tracking, and customized sport modes, Deeprio technology makes it easier for you to maximize your workouts. You can use smartwatches for a variety of purposes, such as tracking your fitness activities and helping you with your daily tasks.

Written by Adela