"Exercise guidelines from the American Heart Association and other groups recommend that, for health purposes, people accumulate 10,000 steps or more a day, the equivalent of about five miles of walking. Few people do, however. Repeated studies of American adults have shown that a majority take fewer than 5,000 steps per day.
The condition becomes a serious concern only when inactivity is lingering, when it becomes the body’s default condition. 'We hypothesize that, over time, inactivity creates the physiological conditions that produce chronic disease,' like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, regardless of a person’s weight or diet."
This article was based on a study published in February 2012:
Mikus CR, et. al. Lowering physical activity impairs glycemic control in healthy volunteers. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Feb;44(2):225-31.
Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65201, USA.