Loading…
12
Showerthought: the "average American walks 3,000 steps a day" stat flipped completely between 2010 and now
Back in high school health class it was 10,000 steps or you were lazy, then a 2017 study of 700,000 phones in 111 countries showed the real average was closer to 5,000 and the 10k number came from a 1960s Japanese pedometer ad campaign. Anyone else old enough to remember getting shamed by the old number?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
young.ryan2d ago
Wow, that 10k number being from a pedometer ad is wild. I heard a podcast last year talking about how those early step counters were made by a Japanese company and the name basically meant "10,000 step meter" so the number was baked right into the product name. Then it just became this thing everyone repeated like it was science. My mom still calls me lazy if I don't hit 10k and I keep telling her the real number is way lower. Funny how one ad from the 60s turned into a rule we all felt bad about for decades.
4