What your step count says about your fitness levels

While 10,000 steps per day has become a standard target, even as few as 4,000 daily steps can offer significant health benefits for those with a sedentary lifestyle

A study published last December, based on data from around 100,000 people, found that doing 7,000 steps per day gives you a 31% lower risk of depression, compared with less than 5,000 steps.

Almost every smartphone, smartwatch, or wearable worth its salt now has a built-in step counter.

With experts warning that ‘sitting is the new smoking’, and organisations such as the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Sport Ireland devising campaigns to encourage the public to be more active, monitoring our total number of daily steps has become part of our lives.