The definition of being sedentary or physically inactive is expending less than 1.5 kcal/kg/day in leisure physical activities, according to the National Population Health Surveys of Canada. This is the equivalent of walking a little over two kilometers or 1.3 miles, or approximately 3000 steps. For most people, that is a walk of 25 minutes or less.
In the US National Health Interview Survey, adults are classified as inactive if they did not report any sessions of light to moderate or vigorous leisure-time physical activity of at least 10 minutes a day. By that measure, 25% of US adults reported no leisure-time physical activity and can be considered inactive or sedentary.
Pedometer researcher Katrine Tudor-Locke labels anyone who logs fewer than 5000 pedometer steps per day as sedentary or inactive. This is consistent, as most people will log 2000 steps simply in daily activities around the house - going from bed to kitchen to bathroom to couch, etc.
How Many Step per Day Are Enough?
In order not to be inactive and to reduce health risks, health authorities such as the American Heart Association recommends moderate intensity exercise for either 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week or a total of 2 hours and 30 minutes per week. What is moderate intensity exercise?
Sources: Haskell WL, Lee IM, Pate RR, Powell KE, Blair SN, Franklin BA, Macera CA, Heath GW, Thompson PD, Bauman A. "Physical Activity and Public Health. Updated Recommendation for Adults From the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association." Circulation. 2007 Aug 1. [Epub ahead of print]
Tudor-Locke, Catrine, Bassett, David R Jr. "How Many Steps/Day Are Enough?: Preliminary Pedometer Indices for Public Health" Sports Medicine. 34(1):1-8, 2004.
2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, Office of Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. updated 10/7/2008. Accessed 10/9/2008.
