There are a lot of “healthy” metrics that have somehow become the norm across the board. We’re supposed to eat 2000 calories a day, drink 8 glasses of water a day, and – thanks to our smart devices – walk 10,000 steps a day, too.

It turns out that recommendation, like many others, isn’t one-size fits all, and according to epidemiologist I-Min Lee, there’s a good chance you can actually shave a few thousand off that number.

“Taking 10,000 steps a day can sound daunting. But…even a modest increase in steps taken is tied to significantly lower mortality in older women. The message is: Step more – even a little more is helpful.”

Lee led a study into exactly this in 2019, and found that as few as 4400 steps a day made a significant difference.

Others studies support this finding, each coming in with 4500 steps a day being enough to alter your health in a positive way.

If you’re a younger person, you can expect that number to be a bit higher – around 7500 or 8000 steps a day, according to a lead author in a 2021 study.

“You see this gradual risk reduction in mortality as you get more steps. There were substantial health benefits between 7000 and 10,000 steps but we didn’t see an additional benefit from going beyond 10,000 steps.”

This 2022 study found that if you’re hoping to reduce your chances for obesity, sleep apnea, GERD, and depression, your goal should be more like 8200 steps a day, particularly if you’re younger.

It turns out the 10k steps a day never came from a body of health professionals at all, but from the devices that were being sold to clock steps in the first place.

Health professionals agree instead that people should shoot for 150 minutes of physical activity a week – which evens out to about 8,000 steps a day.

So get out there and move, but you can tell your device to shut up if it’s giving you a hard time about those last couple thousand steps at the end of the day.

Now you know they don’t matter at all.