15k Steps Daily for Better Health

Want to improve your health? Well, according to a new study walking for roughly 15,000 steps per day can help you achieve this goal. Researchers from the University of Warwick in Scotland followed postal workers, monitoring how many steps they take as well as their overall health. They found that workers who walked their routes instead of driving experienced a healthier weight, slimmer midsection and faster metabolism than their counterparts who spend little-to-no time walking.

Researchers found that these "high-active" postal workers spent about seven hours a day standing or walking, all while the covering some seven miles on foot. That's pretty impressive to say the least, especially when you consider they were simply performing their job.

In contrast, desk workers spent around nine hours per day sitting and seven hour sleeping. Furthermore, these sedentary workers showed signs of metabolic syndrome, which is linked to coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes. All workers monitored in this study was considered overall healthy and did not smoke.

So, what should you take away from this study? According to lead author and researcher Dr. William Tigbe, people should focus on increasing the amount of walking they do in a typical day. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that you have to set aside several hours each day for this activity. There are ways to increase your walking without making drastic changes to your lifestyle. Walking for just half an hour, four times daily, for instance, is the perfect way to reap the benefits of this exercise.

If you work in an office perhaps you can take the stairs instead of the elevator. Climbing the stairs is an excellent form of exercise that engages the heart and gets the blood pumping. Or maybe you can walk to lunch instead of drive. These are just a few of the countless ways that you can increase your daily walking.

Walking is something that we do every day, yet many people overlook its health benefits. Walking is a form of cardiovascular exercise that encourages the heart to pump faster while subsequently reducing the risk of many forms of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. According to this recent study, it can also promote a healthy metabolism, which is why we should be doing more of it.

This study was published in the journal Obesity.