How is the number 10, 000 (steps per day for exercise) arrived at?

A sensor in a device (on your wrist, or in your phone (in your trouser pocket)) counts 1 every time your left or right leg moves.
All the ones are added up.

I’ve edited the OP. Why that specific number? They mean around 10,000 I guess . But How did they arrive at around 10,000?

The average step length for an adult is around 2 feet, 10,000 steps is approximately five miles which is considered a good distance for basic fitness and health.

How it’s arrived at.

The Japanese company Yamesa in 1965, made a Pedometer called ‘Manpo-kei’ which translates to ten thousand steps in English.

@flo @canidmajor‘s answer tells you how it’s arrived it. It was determined by health scientists that walking 5 miles per day is optimal for health and 10,000 steps translates roughly to 5 miles.

There are recent studies that say 4,400 steps a day will improve your health and 10,000 ismore than enough it say 6,500 is plenty.

10,000 steps is not required This article from The Atlantic magazine explains.

You would have to ask Mayo; I certainly don’t know how they arrived at that. If I cared, I would ask them.

I posted Mayo’s link not because it’s Mayo’s recommendation, I don’t know.

It’s a nice round number.

10K steps is just a guideline not a rule. The rule is that there is no rule. According to the NY Times, new research gives a more ambitious goal of 15K steps a day (7 miles of walking).

When I go for walks, I cover a mile in about 900 steps. I cover three miles (2,700 steps) in one hour. (10,000 steps, for me, = 11.1111 miles, 3.7 hours. 15,000 steps, =16.6666 miles, 5.5555 hours.)

@kritiper 900 steps in a mile? That would give you a stride of almost six feet. You must be over ten feet tall, because to have a six foot stride means your legs are almost six feet long.

The 10,000 steps was promoted by the American Heart Association.

@zenvelo 5.8666 feet, to be exact. I am six foot two. We have a greenbelt here along the river with miles measured out to the tenth of a mile, with markings to show them.
The measurement of a “stride” is in question here. I count one as from where the heel of my left or right foot is on the ground to where it is at the other end of a stride.

Just a casual stride around the house is 4.5 feet. Multiply by 10,000 = 45,000 feet or about 8.5 miles.

But whether it’s measured by miles/kilometers or by steps, or whether how did the originator arrive at it? Why not 7,000 or 12.000 steps?

@kritiper 10,000 steps is moving one leg, not moving each leg. So is a stride measurement. If you stride 4½ feet on a 36 inch inseam, it means every time you step you open your legs to about 90 degrees.

@zenvelo Yes. When I move one leg, one stride, say, the left leg, left heel to back of left heel, is 5.8666 feet. But you can figure it out yourself, the math doesn’t lie.
But I think the main point here is that, no matter how long anyone’s stride is, 10,000 steps is a lot of steps.
@flo I think what @Caravanfan said says it best: It’s a nice round number.

@kritiper,
@Caravanfan is not being serious.

@flo You could have fooled me! I’ll take @Caravanfan serious because it sounds just about right or darn close to it.

@kritiper Ok with me.