One Stair Step Climbed = 4 Seconds More of Life

One Stair Step Climbed = 4 Seconds More of Life

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Each stair step climbed adds 4 seconds to how long you live. Over a life time it can add up to 2 1/2 years. 

Really? Who says so? Two Harvard MDs did the calculating.

Research shows expending 2,000 extra calories a week extends your life. That’s right, when you spend calories doing moderate exercise (walking, playing sports or stair climbing), you’ll live 2 1/2 years longer than a sedentary person. 

The Harvard MDs calculated how long would it take to spend those 2,000 calories by climbing stairs. Their discovery: Forty-one minutes average time was required over a 6-day work week. (2,000 calories are expended when climbing 228 flights of stairs, 22 steps per flight). 

(For those interested in the final calculations: “101.6 days spent climbing stairs to gain the 916.2 extra days of longevity. That’s a net gain of 814.6 days or 13,034 waking hours or 782,040 minutes. This gain requires climbing 228 flights a week, 52 weeks a year, for 45 years. That’s 533,520 stories. Dividing minutes gained by stories climbed works out to 1.47 minutes of waking life gained for each story climbed. At 22 stairs per story, each step increases waking life by about four seconds.”)

There you have it: each step climbed is worth a 4-second addition to your life. While the two doctors admitted to “tongue-in-cheek calculations,” it’s worth considering: every step we take has consequences of a positive kind.

How do you add an extra 2,000 calories a week taking steps? Taking 2,000 steps burns approximately 100 calories. The average American takes 5,000 steps a day. If you take an additional 6,000 steps a day (approximately 11,000 total a day, 40,000 a week), you will expend an extra 2,000 calories in a week.

(Study: Haney, Daniel Q., “Each Stair Climbed Increases Life by 4 Seconds,” Associated Press, August 6, 1986; https://apnews.com/47f84bf2c83a1bb2b4452462fad79036)

For more ideas about incorporating more moving and less sitting into your life, see Intermittent Moving, How I lost my pants and mastered weight control, Move More • Sit Less • Master Your Weight. https://amzn.to/33AdwA8