Walking: Steps vs minutes, what’s the best for workout goals

Exercise without a smartwatch is a thing of the past. We are all obsessed with wanting to know how much progress we made during the exercise. But how do you usually measure your progress? When walking, do you count the steps or the minutes?

A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined this. They investigated whether exercise goals should be measured in minutes or steps. The findings are published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Steps vs minutes

So, should your exercise goals be in minutes or steps? The new study found that both step and time-based exercise targets are equivalently associated with improved health outcomes, extended lifespan, and reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that whether one chooses a time or step goal may not be as important as choosing a goal aligned with personal preferences.

It is known that physical activity reduces the risk of chronic illness and infection and promotes longevity. Adults should aimd for at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (e.g., brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (e.g., jogging) per week.

The researchers were keen to understand how time-based goals stack up against step-based ones. “We recognized that existing physical activity guidelines focus primarily on activity duration and intensity but lack step-based recommendations. With more people using smartwatches to measure their steps and overall health, we saw the importance of ascertaining how step-based measurements compare to time-based targets in their association with health outcomes – is one better than the other?” lead author Rikuta Hamaya, MD, PhD, MS, a researcher in the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH, said in a statement.

The study

To understand how step and time-based metrics affect physical activity, the researchers analyzed data from 14,399 women who participated in the Women’s Health Study. The participants were healthy (free from cardiovascular disease and cancer). Between 2011 and 2015, participants aged 62 years and older. They were asked to wear research-grade wearables for seven consecutive days to record their physical activity levels, only removing the devices for sleep or water-related activities. They were followed through the end of 2022.

Findings

At the time of monitoring, the researchers found that participants engaged in a median of 62 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity per week and accumulated a median of 5,183 steps per day. After a median follow-up of nine years, about 9% of participants had died and 4% developed cardiovascular disease. Higher levels of physical activity (whether assessed as step counts or time in moderate-to-vigorous activity) were linked with large risk reductions in death or cardiovascular disease. They found that the most active quarter of women had 30-40% risk reductions compared with the least active quarter. Women in the top three quartiles of physical activity outlived those in the bottom quartile by an average of 2.22 and 2.36 months, respectively, based on time and step-based measurements, at nine years of follow-up.

Should you count steps or minutes?

Hamaya explained that both metrics are beneficial in checking health status; however, each has its advantages and downsides. For one, step counts may not account for differences in fitness levels. If a 20-year-old and an 80-year-old both walk for 30 minutes at moderate intensity, their step counts may differ significantly. Steps are straightforward to measure and less subject to interpretation compared to exercise intensity. Also, steps capture even sporadic movements of everyday life, not just exercise, and these kinds of daily life activities likely are those carried out by older individuals.



"For some, especially for younger individuals, exercise may involve activities like tennis, soccer, walking, or jogging, all of which can be easily tracked with steps. However, for others, it may consist of bike rides or swimming, where monitoring the duration of exercise is simpler. That's why it's important for physical activity guidelines to offer multiple ways to reach goals. Movement looks different for everyone, and nearly all forms of movement are beneficial to our health,” Hamaya said.

"The next federal physical activity guidelines are planned for 2028. Our findings further establish the importance of adding step-based targets, in order to accommodate flexibility of goals that work for individuals with differing preferences, abilities and lifestyles,” senior author I-Min Lee, MBBS, ScD, an epidemiologist in the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH, added.