How do you measure the value of a step? A common goal for many people over the last 60 years has been 10,000 steps a day for better health. AdvertisementA team of researchers decided to figure out just how many steps a person should really take for better health, landing on around 7,000 for the general population. It challenged the health value of aiming for 10,000 steps per dayPhilip Clare, a researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia who was on the study team, described the reasons for setting a more realistic goal. “It’s not wrong to have a target that isn’t necessarily giving you the maximum benefit.