If you think back to ancestral humans — before farming was done — we were all hunter-gatherers, and getting food took effort. If hunting and gathering had been too taxing physically for our ancestors, well, we’d have evolved differently. Being able to move a lot also means being capable of moving to places with better food when needed. If this kind of movement also keeps us healthy, it’s an evolutionary win.

Data from a study was published in 2019 showed that among women ages 45 and older, those women who took 4,400 steps per day had significantly lower mortality than those with 2,700 steps per day. In fact, the more steps the women took, the lo...