Get out and walk more to meet activity guidelines

• Walking is most popular form of physical activity
• Experts recommend walking at least 10,000 steps a day
• People who wear pedometers tend to move more

Walking is the most popular form of physical activity among adults in the USA and the most frequently reported activity among those who meet the government's physical activity guidelines, recent research shows.

About 48% of people say they were meeting the federal physical activity guidelines, and walkers are almost three times more likely to meet them than non-walkers, according to government data released in August. It's based on interviews with about 45,500 adults. Activity levels were self-reported, and about a third of people admit they are inactive.

So why should people step it up?

"I do not think most people appreciate the powerful health benefits of walking," says Tim Church, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.

"The idea that you have to train for a marathon to benefit from exercise is simply wrong," he says. "Walking can improve your mood and boost your energy levels."

Research shows that regular physical activity helps control weight and reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and some types of cancer and a host of other conditions. It lowers the risk of cognitive decline and hip fractures.

The government physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get at least 2½ hours (150 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity each week, such as brisk walking, or 1¼ hours (75 minutes) of a vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, such as jogging or swimming laps, or a combination of the two types, to get the most health benefits from exercise. This activity should be done in at least 10-minute bouts.

You can meet these recommendations by walking, but you need to get the lead out and put some spring in your step. It's not window shopping or taking a stroll in the park. You have to walk like you're late for the bus.

You should be able to carry on a conversation, but you'll be a little breathless when you talk, says Miriam Nelson, director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Prevention at Tufts University in Boston. You should be able to feel that your heart rate is up.

"If you can break a sweat once or twice a week with walking, even better," she says. "We know that walking at a brisker pace provides even more added health benefits."

Research suggests that people in this country only take an average of about 5,000 steps a day, but experts recommend taking at least 10,000 steps a day. That's equivalent to about 5 miles over the course of a day. A mile is roughly 2,000 to 2,500 steps, depending on stride length.

For a real measure of the amount you move, get a pedometer, says Mark Fenton, co-author of Pedometer Walking. Clip it to your waistband and wear it from the time you get out of bed until you go to sleep at night, he says.

Fenton suggests keeping track for two or three days, then use these steps-per-day numbers to figure out where you are:

-- Fewer than 3,500 steps: very sedentary.

-- 3,500 to 5,000: sedentary.

-- 5,500 to 7,500: somewhat active. You're headed in the right direction but need to step it up.

-- 7,500 to 9,000: doing better, but still not meeting the minimum recommendation.

-- More than 9,000 steps: active. Stick with it and keep moving.

--10,000: the minimum goal recommended by health experts.

If your goal is to lose weight, you probably need to work up to 12,000 or more steps a day, Fenton says.

One study found that people who wear a pedometer walk about 2,000 more steps a day, or about another mile, than those who don't.